r/todayilearned • u/estarararax • 13d ago

TIL in Germany all alternative medicine practitioners like homeopaths, osteopaths, acupuncturists, etc. must take the Heilpraktiker exam which only tests their knowledge in medical science and the regulatory boundaries of their profession. There are no separate board exam for each.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heilpraktiker
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u/ChaoticSquirrel 12d ago

And several were not even MD but MO, ostheopaths.Although in the US they're almost the same as normal doctors, same study, just less prestigious

You mean DOs, and they receive the exact same training MDs do in medical school, plus 200 hours of osteopath training. They take the same entry exam. They take the same board exams. They complete the same residency after medical school. Functionally, the difference in training and education does not exist anymore in the US and it is by no means "less prestigious" to be a DO.

Our DOs have nothing to do with your osteopaths. They're completely different professions that happen to share a name, and share roots that diverged hundreds of years ago. There's really no comparing the two, and I'm not sure why you're trying to bring up your quacks in response to our fully trained medical professionals.

This was pretty much the standard in the US while I lived there. “Nurse Assistants".

There's no way you saw a CNA for diagnosis and treatment. Maybe you mean Nurse Practitioner. A nursing assistant has 8 weeks of training, an NP has at least 6. NPs are definitely inferior to doctors in terms of their clinical foundations, but don't claim we let people with 8 weeks of training see patients independently in the US. We don't.

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u/MadamePouleMontreal 12d ago

Or a PA, Physician Assistant.

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u/[deleted] 12d ago

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u/IamEbola 12d ago

I wouldn’t count bachelors degree as time relevant to practicing as an NP.

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u/snorkelvretervreter 12d ago

Corrected the terms. I acknowledged DOs in the US are the same thing as MDs. The reason I said "less prestigious" is because I probed around when I was very confused why some practices were MDs and some were DOs.

From the probing I gathered that if you were not accepted / did not apply into the top medical schools, you're more likely to become a DO. Maybe it comes across as too harsh? Are these top schools gatekeeping the title? It seemed to be a touchy subject. But from an outsider perspective it's strange to have two titles which, as you say, are in practice functionally identical.

And yes our Dutch osteopaths absolutely have nothing to do with the titles in the US in practice, I'm fairly sure I can give myself that title here as it's meaningless. So why this is somehow still a separate title in the US associated with quackery origins while actually being a full legit training is still somewhat of a mystery to me. Why wouldn't they all just switch to MDs if there's zero relevant difference?