As an osteopathic medical student, I take pride in knowing that I am getting an education that will give me the knowledge to take care of my future patients. During the countless hours spent studying, I always had a driving factor that continued to push me—the health of the patients who will entrust me to take care of them.  

We are currently in the midst of a national shortage of physicians. This shortage is due to many factors, but we should all be working together to make any changes that make progress toward fixing this shortage. Both osteopathic (DO) and allopathic (MD) schools are attempting to fix this shortage by training quality physicians, while osteopathic physicians provide a unique outlook on patient care that can further benefit residency programs.

I am an advocate for equity on every scale. Not accepting osteopathic students into residency programs, or requiring osteopathic students to take an extra board examination to be considered creates more inequality in medicine. The licensing examinations for osteopathic students (COMLEX-USA) and allopathic students (USMLE) have been considered equivalent and adequate examinations. Yet over half (56 percent) of residency programs that consider DOs require them to take the USMLE to be considered for acceptance. This leads osteopathic students to spend more than 6 million dollars collectively on the USMLE each year. This cost does not even scratch the surface of the amount of money osteopathic students spend on additional resources to prepare for the USMLE, in addition to the resources to prepare for COMLEX-USA. Medicine has many barriers that have led to disparities, one of them being the incredibly high costs to get into medical school as well as throughout medical school.

Osteopathic students do not hesitate when faced with the challenge of preparing for multiple examinations, but several factors make this process a burden. Burnout is rampant in the medical field and has had an association with the stress that these board examinations place on students. The additional stress of taking a second examination, sometimes within a couple of days, can lead to increased burnout among osteopathic students. Due to residency programs not accepting osteopathic students, we spend countless hours researching residency programs to see if we will be considered. This time would be better spent studying and developing as future physicians.

I believe we all share a common goal and that is to increase the amount of well-trained physicians while improving access to healthcare. The mental and financial burden as well as the time restraint required to take an extra examination increases barriers for osteopathic students, creating inequities in the medical field. We must continue to make strides toward equality and diversity to better help the patients we strive to serve. The FAIR Act would be a step in the right direction.