News in brief

Some DO students may be allowed to graduate without taking COMLEX Level 2-PE

COCA, the body that accredits DO schools, is permitting COM deans to waive the requirement for certain 2021 graduates.

Last week, the Commission on Osteopathic College Accreditation announced its decision to allow deans at colleges of osteopathic medicine (COMs) to waive the requirement to pass the COMLEX Level 2-PE clinical skills exam for 2021 graduates. The decision came following the National Board of Osteopathic Medical Examiners’ (NBOME) announcement that it would postpone resumption of Level 2-PE testing until Sept. 1, 2020 due to safety concerns because of the COVID-19 pandemic.

The scheduling change has complicated the ability of some students with 2021 graduation dates to complete exams by the end of the 2020-21 academic year.

COM deans who choose to waive the requirement will have to demonstrate that fourth-year students who are graduating without passing the exam:

1. have satisfactorily completed their COM’s other requirements for graduation; and
2. have been recommended for graduation by the faculty, or faculty association, or other approved body.

In a letter providing guidance on the issue, COCA noted that successful completion of a licensing exam sequence will still be required for licensure to practice, that the decision only applies to 2021 graduates, and that 2021 graduates will still be required to pass the COMLEX Level 2-CE computerized exam. COCA also noted that if there is not sufficient access to the Level 2-CE exam, it may reconsider that requirement in the future.

Last week, the AOA, AACOM, COCA and NBOME released a joint statement expressing support for COCA’s decision to allow deans to waive the COMLEX Level 2-PE requirement for certain 2021 graduates.

3 comments

  1. Frustrated Medical Students

    O$teopathic Lords,
    Your inaction to cancel the COMLEX PE will confer serious disadvantages to this year’s graduating class. They will be negatively affected during the match process with students not taking the exam before rank lists are due in February 2021. Any failures from late test dates may forfeit recent graduate’s residency positions.
    Please consider the risk of requiring 6,000 students to descend on two COVID-19 hot spots via airports, hotel stays, and disobeying social distancing guidelines by touching patient-actors in a simulated examination. As of now, there have been 1.8 million cases, 106,000 deaths related to COVID-19. This will endanger the lives of both future physicians and the general population.
    If the NBOME continues to administer this exam on the basis that COCA requires it for students to graduate, then both organizations will be responsible for the increased risk of transmission of this virus. Mandating this test during a global pandemic is completely irresponsible.
    2,500 OMS were surveyed and 96% want the exam suspended and cancelled for the 2020-2021 year. Definitive action MUST be taken that shows regard for the health and wellbeing of students, their loved ones, and the greater communities of America who will undoubtedly be affected by a decision to continue with this exam. Postponing the exam until September does not solve the issue.
    NBME put student safety as a priority and cancelled STEP 2 CS. NBOME should follow suit. We are not more immune

  2. Medical student

    Agreed w/ above. My exam kept getting delayed until February even if I wanted to take it on time.

  3. Medical School Debt Slave

    The pressure is on. NBME announced a permanent end to the Step 2 CS. How will the NBOME respond? We know this makes them millions of dollars a year. I suspect it will have some kind of excuse for, “assessing our OMT competencies and implementation of core principles in patient care.” It is already inordinately expensive to become a D.O. over an M.D. The least they can do is ease up on a nearly $1300 scheme designed to discriminate against IMGs. Doctors did fine before the test, they will do fine after it’s gone. The only difference is how much $$$ NBOME gets away with before the end.

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