Career After Residency

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Is there a high demand for surgically trained podiatrists(especially in regards to NY)? After the three year surgical residency, how likely is it to receive a job offer to continue performing surgeries? I ask this because the two podiatrists I've shadowed thus far do not perform surgeries at all. They mostly provide palliative care at their solo practice, which seems like a waste of three years of surgical residency. Does this have to do with a low supply of patients who need surgeries? Is it competitive to gain a position in a hospital as a surgeon? Are top residents the only ones who are privileged to surgeries? Is it possible to own a private practice that specializes in mostly surgical cases?

If a Podiatrist who just finished up his residency did not get any job offerings and decides to start up or buy a solo practice, will he mostly deal with just palliative care patients(corns, calluses,ingrown toe nails, warts..)? What are some other options for Pods who want to start their own business?

Are you sure the podiatrists you shadowed were surgically trained? Back in the day, surgical residencies were harder to come by. Also, if they are older individuals they may just not want to do surgery anymore.

It seems like the norm for podiatrists now-a-days is to have one or two days a week where they do a few surgical cases.

Originally Posted by arez10

Are you sure the podiatrists you shadowed were surgically trained? Back in the day, surgical residencies were harder to come by. Also, if they are older individuals they may just not want to do surgery anymore.

It seems like the norm for podiatrists now-a-days is to have one or two days a week where they do a few surgical cases.

Yeah, I shadowed two Pods so far and they both dedicated a couple days of the week for surgeries and a couple others for seeing patients.

The answer is Yes and No.

I agree with the other posters and I suggest their anecdotal evidence is "the norm." So, yes, there is a need for surgically trained pods.

Is it likely you will spend 5 days of the work-week in the OR? No, not likely at all. While there are some pods that work for ortho clinics that only perform surgery and post-ops, the vast majority are in solo practice or group practice where they perform a large variety of care - including surg.

As stated, the doctors that were shadowed may not perform surgery because they weren't surgically trained. Or they may simply not want to perform surgery. Surgery is not always the best way to earn an income for some doctors, given the time to travel to the hospital/surgical center, the time at the facility for pre op, intra op and post op, the time to travel back to the office and the fact that surgical fees aren't always tremendous and you can not bill for follow up care for most surgical cases for 30, 60, or 90 days depending on the procedure and/or insurance company.

I've mentioned this many times on this site, but one of our practice partners who IS surgically trained and ABPS certified has decided to no longer perform surgery. However, he is still one of the top producers for our practice.

The situations you described are an excellent opportunity. You just have to look at it a little differently. Many graduating residents are actually benefiting from the type of scenario you described, since they are often being hired by these practices to offer services (surgical) that were never available before for the patients.

Many of the non surgically trained doctors no longer want to refer surgery to another practice, and want to start offering the full spectrum of services, including surgery. That's when a graduating resident has a great opportunity to step in and help the practice.

However, as per a prior post, the majority of DPM's are not in the O.R. every day. Judging by my past experience being on staff on many hospitals, the majority dedicate one day weekly to surgery, and some dedicate less time. Of course there are those who perform cases more than once weekly.

We have a relatively busy surgery schedule, but also have an extremely busy practice. Therefore, I dedicate one full day weekly to surgery, but often have to go to the O.R. (as well as the other surgical docs in our practice), to perform urgent/emergent cases on other days.

There is a lot more than surgery in this profession, even if you are surgically trained. Even most orthopods I know don't spend 5 days a week in the O.R. Most dedicate 1 or 2 days weekly.

Yes, there are many excellent opportunities for graduating residents. Some include working with an existing busy practice, some include working with a practice that formerly did not offer surgical services, some include solo practice, some include working with an orthopedic group, etc., etc.

Just understand and be prepared for the fact that you will probably do more than just surgery in the vast majority of practice models you may enter. There are a lot of pathologies that patients need our services for that are not surgical, but just as rewarding.

Once again. Surgical residencies were hard to come by back in the day. One of the podiatrist that I shadowed never did one because he had no interest in surgery. Or he just couldn't get into one...

The doctors I have shadowed seem to have a dedicated day for surgery. I've followed 2 so far, and they seem to be doing financially well, only stepping into the O.R 1 to 2 days a week.

I'm going to apply in early august, and I'm ok with not doing 100% surgeries. It's actually nice that Podiatrist can see different cases, and handle things from wound care, surgical cases and to simple fungal infections.

I really hope I have a successful application cycle **crosses fingers**

I thought I heard somewhere that Pod's today that do surgery intensive residencies can get jobs in multispecialty groups as the primary FA surgeons similar to that of an orthopedic FA specialist. Correct me if im wrong I would like to see that statement demystified.

Originally Posted by Cozell

I thought I heard somewhere that Pod's today that do surgery intensive residencies can get jobs in multispecialty groups as the primary FA surgeons similar to that of an orthopedic FA specialist. Correct me if im wrong I would like to see that statement demystified.

All residencies should be "surgery intensive." So, yes, a pod can be a F/A surgeon doing identical work that an F/A orthopod does.