One reason pre-health students decide to go into podiatry is because it offers a balance between a career in medicine and family lifestyle. It's also true that podiatry is a surgical specialty and many surgical specialities are not family friendly. How is podiatry different in that respect?
Does podiatry provide a balance between career and lifestyle
- Thread starter CHOPSTIX
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While podiatry is not a surgical specialty as far as going to traditional medical school and then specializing, there are a lot of similarities. The day to day practice of podiatry is similar to what you might find with most surgical specialists. For example a vascular surgeon will typically see pts in clinic a few days a week and perform surgery on off days much the same way most podiatrists practice. So airbud is correct that because we do not attend an allopathic school, complete a gen surg residency and specialize from there we are not a surgical specialty. However, describing podiatry as a surgical specialty is a fairly accurate description of what we do. (disclaimer - not all podiatrists currently perform surgery, but any new graduating podiatrist is required to complete a 3 yr surgical residency) I am a podiatrist and while I do everything from woundcare/general podiatry to reconstructive surgery/trauma I consider myself a specialist in foot and ankle surgery. Hope this helps. It would be a good idea to take the previous posters advice and shadow a podiatrist in your area.
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Technically, podiatry is labelled as a surgical sub-speciality because in most hospitals podiatry is lumped into the department of surgery or in the department of orthopedics. This is due to podiatrists on staff at these hospitals are surgeons.
As far as lifestyle is concerned, that is all up to how you want to practice. Majority of podiatrists have a balanced practice which has clinic days mixed in with surgery. For example, I have one day dedicated to wound care and the other 3 1/2 days I dedicate to clinic. I have 1/2 day for surgeries. Now, I do also get consults and schedule surgeries for in-patient, but I will do those at the end of my clinic days or even on weekends. Does this happen every week, not necessarily, but those weeks that you are "slow" give you some time to catch up with work and family.
As far as lifestyle is concerned, that is all up to how you want to practice. Majority of podiatrists have a balanced practice which has clinic days mixed in with surgery. For example, I have one day dedicated to wound care and the other 3 1/2 days I dedicate to clinic. I have 1/2 day for surgeries. Now, I do also get consults and schedule surgeries for in-patient, but I will do those at the end of my clinic days or even on weekends. Does this happen every week, not necessarily, but those weeks that you are "slow" give you some time to catch up with work and family.
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You work in a practice that is separate from the hospital but you take your patients to the hospital for care (such as surgery). Some cases have to stay overnight or longer for more attentive care, and those are called inpatients. Compare that to "outpatients" who are stable enough to send home because they don't need nurses or other hospital services to watch them overnight.
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Also, just because you are not an employee of a hospital does not mean you cannot be consulted on pts there as long as you are on staff at the hospital. If you develop a good relationship with the internists or vasc surgeons at the hospital you can get a lot of consults on inpatients and referrals.
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Most of the doctors on staff are not employed by the hospital. Technically most of them are independent contractors. We pay our dues to be on staff, but if we see patients in the hospital we are billing for the visit through our office. If you've ever been hospitalized, you will see a bill for the hospital (facility fee) and a bill from the physician.
Thank you NatCh, Sportspod, and Gustydoc.
So being staff implies just having privileges to work at the hospital (and bill separately) and only a few doctors are actually employed by the hospital (such as hospitalists); most are independent contractors.
So as staff, you may be called by the hospital to do surgery on a patient or a consult. Obviously, you schedule surgeries for your own patient you see in your own clinic.
I've never been hospitalized, so I've never seen this stuff firsthand.
But I do know that I would get bored seeing patients in the clinic all day. I would like helping really sick people.
So on average, how many cases does a DPM get at the hospital a week?
So being staff implies just having privileges to work at the hospital (and bill separately) and only a few doctors are actually employed by the hospital (such as hospitalists); most are independent contractors.
So as staff, you may be called by the hospital to do surgery on a patient or a consult. Obviously, you schedule surgeries for your own patient you see in your own clinic.
I've never been hospitalized, so I've never seen this stuff firsthand.
But I do know that I would get bored seeing patients in the clinic all day. I would like helping really sick people. So on average, how many cases does a DPM get at the hospital a week?
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I think it is still a better balance than a lot of other medical specialties. However, since podiatry has progressed surgically over the past decade, we are doing more and seeing more. For instance, a lot more pods are taking trauma call and are on staff at hospital. So you see a lot of guys trying to balance a practice while being a hospitalist as well. Things can get quite busy. Not long ago, podiatry was more of an office based practice and still is for many. But the trend is changing.
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I think most medical specialties can give a good lifestyle, especially the ones that are frequently paid per hour (ER, anesthesiology, radio, etc) and ones that have a high % who go into private practice (ENT, derm, allergy, pain, podiatry, etc). I've met quite a few ER or anesthesia docs, even many who are fairly young, that work only a few days per week and are fine having less income in exchange for more free time.
Specialties who are more typically salary FTEs of a hospital (g-surg, IM, ID, path, etc) might have a tougher time finding part time work since most hospitals want full timers since they probably give physicians the same nice benefits package whether you work 25hrs or 65hrs per week. I'm sure you could still carve out a fairly lax schedule in almost any specialty if you wanted that and were willing to take a pay cut. A lot of docs just realize it's hard to turn down patients who need your help (and their insurance will pay big bucks).
It's all what you decide to do, though. Depending on what you want and what kind of training you acquire, podiatry can be M-Th 8a-3p office trimming corns and calluses, or it could be 80hrs per week running a residency, doing research, and taking trauma call.
Specialties who are more typically salary FTEs of a hospital (g-surg, IM, ID, path, etc) might have a tougher time finding part time work since most hospitals want full timers since they probably give physicians the same nice benefits package whether you work 25hrs or 65hrs per week. I'm sure you could still carve out a fairly lax schedule in almost any specialty if you wanted that and were willing to take a pay cut. A lot of docs just realize it's hard to turn down patients who need your help (and their insurance will pay big bucks).
It's all what you decide to do, though. Depending on what you want and what kind of training you acquire, podiatry can be M-Th 8a-3p office trimming corns and calluses, or it could be 80hrs per week running a residency, doing research, and taking trauma call.
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Ha ha ha! I might be a little too balanced, if you know what I mean!
ROFL, nice one NatCh.
No seriously, do I have the hospital stuff down? How many hospital cases can you do a week? Somebody please explain this in detail.
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Hi. I am an incoming student into NYCPM and I am excited about the material and the scope of practice. Another, but not main reason to enter the profession, was due the flexibility in hours. I wanted to know if you had an opinion on the work balance compared to other MD and DO specialties. Thanks
