James September-October 2024 web - Flipbook - Page 73
Whole person approach. Those are
words that have been said time and
time again since the opening of
PCOM South Georgia in Moultrie
in 2019.
Words like “whole person”
and “hands-on” are often used to
describe osteopathic medicine,
and this informs our approach
to education. That’s because
when you train doctors as people
first, they prioritize the human
connection with their patients.
PCOM South Georgia educates
and trains students to become Doctors
of Osteopathic Medicine (DO), fully
licensed physicians who examine and
treat patients, prescribe medication and
practice in a wide variety of specialties
such as family medicine, emergency
medicine, pediatrics, radiology or surgery. Our rigorous medical school training goes beyond classroom learning
to provide our students with the skills
and support they need to treat their
future patients. This training, coupled
with our supportive community, allows
our osteopathic medical students to
become doctors with the empathy,
experience, skills and compassion that
the future requires.
The “DO difference” is something
that’s clear to see when a patient
visits a DO for treatment. Patients
receive the same level of care as they
would with any other physician, but
osteopathic physicians are trained to
have an extra skill set. They fully see
their patients, meeting them with empathy and care. This kind of physician
is especially beneficial to rural areas
as they are trained to focus on the
whole person, which means looking
at the lifestyle, diet and mental health
of their patients.
In addition, DOs are trained in
osteopathic manipulative treatment
(OMT), which are techniques that
allow them to use their hands to
diagnose injury and illness and encourage the body’s natural tendency
toward good health. Using OMT, an
osteopathic physician learns to move
a patient’s muscles and joints using
techniques that include stretching,
gentle pressure and resistance. That’s
the DO difference.
In my career I’ve practiced OMT
as support for patients with problems
from headaches to congestive heart
failure. If a patient comes in with
congestive heart failure, that means
fluid has backed up in the system. The
common treatment is diuretics, often
referred to as water pills. Osteopathic
physicians can prescribe that, but in
addition to medicine we help the body
move the fluid on its own. For example, manually mobilizing the patient’s
lower extremities helps to circulate
fluid better.
The whole person approach
is simple: Don’t put systems in
a box. The systems of the body
are all interrelated and affect one
another. While a physician may
prescribe heart medicine to fix
a heart problem, that medicine
could negatively affect the kidneys.
Osteopathic physicians are trained to
be doctors first and specialists second.
When a patient presents with
cellulitis, an infection in the leg, physicians often prescribe antibiotics. If the
infection comes back, it is our job to
step back and find out why it’s coming
back. It could be poor lymphatic drainage, reduced blood supply or several
other things. We look at the whole body
to find out what is causing the issue.
We train our osteopathic medical
students to listen to their patients.
They hear their patients’ stories and
work as part of a medical team with
the common goal of good health.
Instead of focusing on symptoms, we
search for the cause of the illness by
looking at the whole patient.
Educating the doctors of tomorrow is today’s mission at PCOM South
Georgia, and it’s that whole person
approach that allows our future physicians to improve health from within
South Georgia.
Kristie Petree, DO ‘13, is the associate professor
and chair of osteopathic manipulative medicine at
PCOM South Georgia.
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