Why Podiatry

AgActual · Dec 23, 2009

First, i am totally sincere in this question, i am not attacking the profession.

So I am wondering, how did all of you get interested in podiatry? Certainly most of you have a passion for this and aren't just settling or getting into the field for the hell of it. How did that passion come about? Why do you have an interest in foot and lower leg problems?

I ask because it seems very specific focus. When someone goes into medicine or dentistry or psychology, typically they learn very general stuff and then might pick a specialty later on. Podiatry seems like jumping into a specialty right off the bat, at a point when most people entering into a health care graduate program aren't 100% sure what they might want to specialize in.

So, how did you become interested in podiatry?

janV88 · Dec 23, 2009

I like podiatry for a few reasons...

1) Specialize from the beginning. I believe this results in more focused study. It allows 1st year residents to "hit the ground running". If you check out the Podiatric Residents and Physicians forum you will find that 1st year podiatry residents spend a lot of time in the OR. I believe Feli did something like 50-60 procedures in a 5 week span of time only 2 months into his 1st year. In general surgery or ortho surgery residents usually wait until 3rd maybe 2nd year until they perform surgery.

My brother is an EM resident who has DPMs and MDs rotate through his ED. He told me, because of the early specialization, a 3rd/4th year DPM student is probably as useful as a 1st/2nd year MD resident (in their respective specialties).

2) Podiatry is a procedural field. You are always working with your hands whether in the OR or in the clinic. Lots of cutting, injecting, etc.

3) Yes it is a specialty but a more accurate way to explain it is a little bit of derm, ortho, vascular, pt, pm&r, etc. Check out this post from Feli...he explains the "limited" scope issue.

Feli said:
Choice as well as training. Let's walk through the specialties:

We'll start with the "broad scope" (and low pay) ones you actually have a shot at matching as a DO 😉...
FP: Head to toe, right? Well, no sx, refer almost everything but the real basics like flu, HTN, gastritis, STDs
IM: "All systems?" "Advanced" dx? Still no sx, still have to refer/consult fellowship trained colleagues often
Peds: actually one of the broadest scopes, but only in a select population, refers out sx
ER: stabilize patient, either floor or door them, then move on to another... no time for advanced dx or tx
Psych: deal with crackpots, treat "pathology" that is almost purely subjective
Path: can do a lot of stuff and every system, but pt contact consists of reading pt chart (often a dead pt)
PM&R: basically non-sx ortho... a PT who can prescribe Rx

Now come some more advanced IM fellowships or similar specialties which narrow your scope a whole lot more. By becoming the ultimate authority on a system and its pathology, you are also giving up a huge chunk of your scope. And despite what you may think, these guys wouldn't "hang up a shingle and practice as a GP" unless it was an absolute last resort...
GI, Cards, Uro, ID, Endo, Rheumato, Neuro, Onc

The surgical specialties...
OB: nice mix of clinic and surg, but again, a limited patient population and organ system
Gen or Trauma Sx: fairly good variety and income... if you can take the absolutely hellish hours
System Sx (neuro, CT, vasc, plastics, etc): interesting, but probably most limited scope of all specialties
Ortho: A+ specialty with clinic/sx mix, but most restrict their own scope after spine/hand/etc fellowship

The NPC or "lifestyle" tracks (mised well forget these since you aren't at a top 50 MD school)...
Derm: good stuff + nice hours, but you are down to one organ system, a lot of narcissistic pts
Rad: all systems, but like path, minimal patient contact means you get rusty on pharm and clinical dx/tx
Anesth: great hours and job... but for years and years? CRNA popularity also limits your income
Optho: fantastic hours, but if you thought neuro had a narrow scope... what does optho have?

...and that brings us to podiatry. When you think about it, DPMs can do pretty much any pathology up to the knee... derm, tendons, bones (trauma, reconstructive, elective), sports med, wounds, peds, orthotics/braces/prosthesis, path, etc. There is room for subspecialty if one seeks it out. It might be a small region of the body, but it's all systems within those parts. All things considered, that means the scope is actually pretty broad. If a DPM does not choose to limit their own scope by choice or training, then they are basically a F&A ortho who will additionally take care of lower extremity derm, nail, and wound care. Pod really is a nice mix that has aspects of ortho, derm, ID, rad, vasc, and endo all rolled into one, assuming you choose to acquire and utilize all of the training.

The bottom line is that, regardless of what your degree is, unless you are a small town doc forced to tackle everything or a guy who wants to get sued, nobody does it all. You are limited by what you are trained for, and that's why a lot of the seemingly broad specialties (IM, peds, path, rad, surg, etc) have plentiful fellowship offerings. Everyone has their role because they are the best for those pathologies and problems. Each student has his/her own interests, aspirations, and strengths. Sorry, but you are not going to be House from TV... diagnosing everything head to toe, doing any and every procedure, and then assisting in the OR surgery on your own patients. There are referrals and consults for a reason... the knowledge base is too vast for any physician to have "unlimited scope" and "treat the whole body."

Go ahead and dog on podiatry if you like, but if it were an MD specialty, it'd be pretty darn popular. You will see in a few years that you will probably end up fighting tooth and nail with other MD/DO grads over the small handful of specialties that actually let you begin your career before age 35 and might eventually provide you a decent income yet allow a life outside the hospital. GL

EDIT: I just realized that I misread the OP. How I got interested? Well I knew I wanted to do something in healthcare and explored a lot of the other fields such as MD, OD, DDS, etc. I liked OD and DDS since it specialized from the beginning but I wanted something more "medical" than OD and my grandparents are DDS. I wanted to be different lol. One day my brother was talking about how he had this patient who they knew had some sort of infection in his body but they couldnt figure out the source. They loaded him up with antibiotics but he kept getting worse and worse. He was pretty much going to die if they couldnt find the source. They checked his body for any type of open wound and realized that he had a toe amputated not too long ago. The patient's foot was slightly red and slightly sore to the touch. Podiatry was called in for a consult. Diagnosis was bone infection. Patient went into surgery and got better almost immediately. At the time I had no idea the extent of what podiatrists did. The more I researched the field, the more I liked what I read and came to the conclusions I outlined above.

Isoprop · Dec 25, 2009

I think the "specialization from the beginning" aspect of podiatry is what turns me off to it. Medical school allows me to explore the different specialties to see what I may or may not like. Last year, I was more interested in critical care, emergency med, and gas. This year, I think I like pathology and radiology more. And I'm not even in med school yet.

Brodiatrist · Dec 25, 2009

AgActual said:
Certainly most of you have a passion for this and aren't just settling or getting into the field for the hell of it

I can assure you this is NOT the case. Podiatry is, and always has been, a backup for students who could not get into general medicine. It's a great profession, but podiatry has is niche, and currently it's the alternative to those who could not go the general route. I should add that the reason I'm spouting this is simply because I do work with admissions and over the past few years while interviewing candidates over 90% have applied to MD, DO, Dental, etc. You hear very creative, PC, explanations as to how everyone's chosen Pod, but the reality is that it's the next best thing. Nothing wrong with that, but let's call a spade a spade. You'll grow to love it, promise.

ckjets · Dec 25, 2009

Brodiatrist said:
I can assure you this is NOT the case. Podiatry is, and always has been, a backup for students who could not get into general medicine. It's a great profession, but podiatry has is niche, and currently it's the alternative to those who could not go the general route. I should add that the reason I'm spouting this is simply because I do work with admissions and over the past few years while interviewing candidates over 90% have applied to MD, DO, Dental, etc. You hear very creative, PC, explanations as to how everyone's chosen Pod, but the reality is that it's the next best thing. Nothing wrong with that, but let's call a spade a spade. You'll grow to love it, promise.

Many like me did not know about podiatry having its own schools, rather thinking it was a specialty after med school, (up until junior year) If I would have known from day one about it, I would have done the joint BA/DPM program that I discovered my university had with NYCPM and saved my self a whole lot of time and money (and crappy drama courses). People who want to go to med school can always reach med school, it will just take some people more time to get there than others, but its not so out of reach as you put it. And let's not forget that dentistry also fit that niche around a decade ago; the phrase was D is for Dentistry. It was also the "next best thing"; I don't think people agree anymore.

sorham · Dec 25, 2009

ckjets said:
Many like me did not know about podiatry having its own schools, rather thinking it was a specialty after med school, (up until junior year) If I would have known from day one about it, I would have done the joint BA/DPM program that I discovered my university had with NYCPM and saved my self a whole lot of time and money (and crappy drama courses). People who want to go to med school can always reach med school, it will just take some people more time to get there than others, but its not so out of reach as you put it. And let's not forget that dentistry also fit that niche around a decade ago; the phrase was D is for Dentistry. It was also the "next best thing"; I don't think people agree anymore.

I agree, I didn't know about it till my junior year and decided to do podiatry over DO or Dental, I could have gotten into either, maybe I'm the exception but I definitely didn't decide on Podiatry as a backup.

that1guyfromFL · Dec 25, 2009

Brodiatrist said:
Podiatry is, and always has been, a backup for students who could not get into general medicine......currently it's the alternative to those who could not go the general route.

This is an incredibly broad, sweeping generalization and was not the case for me.

Some applicants use Pod as a back up, some applicants actually want Pod. Just as some students use DO as a back up and some actually want DO.

Brodiatrist said:
I should add that the reason I'm spouting this is simply because I do work with admissions and over the past few years while interviewing candidates over 90% have applied to MD, DO, Dental, etc.

Because if someone got into MD/DO/DDS there is no way they would choose Pod? You have a seemingly endless array of assertions and assumptions at the ready and no problem applying them to every Pod applicant en masse. Not a good idea if credibility is important to you.

janV88 · Dec 25, 2009

Isoprop said:
I think the "specialization from the beginning" aspect of podiatry is what turns me off to it. Medical school allows me to explore the different specialties to see what I may or may not like. Last year, I was more interested in critical care, emergency med, and gas. This year, I think I like pathology and radiology more. And I'm not even in med school yet.

As you pointed out, specializing early does have it's drawbacks. I think this is why podiatry schools make shadowing a podiatrists and an LOR from a podiatrist mandatory.

215353 · Dec 26, 2009

Brodiatrist said:
I can assure you this is NOT the case. Podiatry is, and always has been, a backup for students who could not get into general medicine. It's a great profession, but podiatry has is niche, and currently it's the alternative to those who could not go the general route. I should add that the reason I'm spouting this is simply because I do work with admissions and over the past few years while interviewing candidates over 90% have applied to MD, DO, Dental, etc. You hear very creative, PC, explanations as to how everyone's chosen Pod, but the reality is that it's the next best thing. Nothing wrong with that, but let's call a spade a spade. You'll grow to love it, promise.

Brodiatrist's comment sums up my experience with falling into Podiatry. My original intentions were to go the traditional medical route with applying to MD and DO schools. I invested a lot of extra time to try and get to this goal. Coming out of undergrad I had a 3.35 cGPA and about a 3.4 sGPA. I knew I had to do something to increase my chances of getting accepted, outside of doing well on the MCAT. I did a two year graduate school program affiliated with the Drexel University College of Medicine and graduated with my MS in Biological Science. I took two years of graduate level and M1 level science courses. I did a good job with my academic work and felt I had academically proven that I can handle large course loads. I did not score as high as I would have liked on the MCAT and because I didn't have a extemely high GPA (like a 3.6) to make up for it I knew that my chances of getting accepted into traditional medical school were low.

So I started researching other health professional careers and came across Podiatric medicine. I always knew about Podiatry through this whole experience but never really considered until my original plans fell through. After reading about it I decided to shadow a podiatrist to get some "real life" experience. It was from this shadowing experience that I knew that this is something I would ENJOY and also do well in. So I applied to Podiatry schools this cycle and got accepted to my number 1 choice (Scholl). I feel extremely lucky that things worked out the way they did because after I had received my MCAT score I felt that all the time and money I had invested in graduate school had been all for nothing.

I feel that Podiatry is a great field with a lot of promise. Things have been changing only for the better and by the time I get done with my education and training (which will be 7 years from now) I feel the field will only be stronger and even better. It's a great time to get involved in this field and I am looking forward to a bright and fulfilling future as a Podiatric physician.

Lastly, I don't feel bad that Podiatry was a second choice for me and I don't think people should get offended that it is a second choice for a lot of students. Regardless of how students go into Podiatry...I feel it is a GREAT field and there is no denying that. What I FEEL and THINK about Podiatry is all that matters.

The End

whiskers · Dec 26, 2009

Brodiatrist said:
I can assure you this is NOT the case. Podiatry is, and always has been, a backup for students who could not get into general medicine. It's a great profession, but podiatry has is niche, and currently it's the alternative to those who could not go the general route. I should add that the reason I'm spouting this is simply because I do work with admissions and over the past few years while interviewing candidates over 90% have applied to MD, DO, Dental, etc. You hear very creative, PC, explanations as to how everyone's chosen Pod, but the reality is that it's the next best thing. Nothing wrong with that, but let's call a spade a spade. You'll grow to love it, promise.

They say the same thing about Osteopathic school and dentistry to some degree. They also say this about PAs etc. It seems that your statement is mostly true about the osteopathic profession, who are really the only ones who mimic the MDs almost 100%. We podiatrists have always been involved with the foot and ankle which was neglected and still is neglected by the medical field. I've never seen a MD trim a toe nail nor a callus nor will they. They would butcher and make the patient bleed to death probably.

Trust me, there is not some vast envy of MDs going on out there like you seem to think. In fact if you can do math, you would see that Podiatry is actually a way better value in terms of cash than a medical degree to do the same damn thing.

The basic fact is as a physician, you will NOT get rich. You will be a middle class dolt worker bee for the rest of your life. You will never be famous or admired.

Sorry but it's just another average job. BTW so many other professions are making more money and benefits than physicians that it is amazing that anyone would want to do this crap.

But you can continue believing in the fame and fortune routine and how everyone has MD envy. LMAO.

BTW, you can get an MD degree from any crap hole country and practice in america. It's not hard to get.

And in my opinion the only ones who really wanted to be an MD and couldnt get in are the ones doing foreign MDs and DO. And there is nothing wrong with those Doctors IMO.

I love the fact that foreign medical graduates can practice and most of them are great physicians and hard workers. So basically I could care less where you were trained and what you do to feed yourself and family.

MaseratiGT · Dec 27, 2009

whiskers said:
But you can continue believing in the fame and fortune routine and how everyone has MD envy. LMAO.

BTW, you can get an MD degree from any crap hole country and practice in america. It's not hard to get.

And in my opinion the only ones who really wanted to be an MD and couldnt get in are the ones doing foreign MDs and DO. And there is nothing wrong with those Doctors IMO.

I love the fact that foreign medical graduates can practice and most of them are great physicians and hard workers. So basically I could care less where you were trained and what you do to feed yourself and family.

AMEN! The people who really wanted MD would go to a better (St. George's) Caribbean medical school. Not everyone uses this as a backup...

Brodiatrist · Dec 27, 2009

that1guyfromFL said:
This is an incredibly broad, sweeping generalization and was not the case for me.

Some applicants use Pod as a back up, some applicants actually want Pod. Just as some students use DO as a back up and some actually want DO.

Because if someone got into MD/DO/DDS there is no way they would choose Pod? You have a seemingly endless array of assertions and assumptions at the ready and no problem applying them to every Pod applicant en masse. Not a good idea if credibility is important to you.

it would be a generalization had it not been fact. I base my opinion on facts. I said over 90% because that's what I've seen in students applications. At no point did I say every applicant, but most fall into that criteria based on admissions numbers, not my imagination.

that1guyfromFL · Dec 27, 2009

Brodiatrist said:
Podiatry is, and always has been, a backup for students who could not get into general medicine. It's a great profession, but podiatry has is niche, and currently it's the alternative to those who could not go the general route.

This is a generalization about Podiatry applicants.

Brodiatrist said:
I'm spouting this is simply because I do work with admissions and over the past few years while interviewing candidates over 90% have applied to MD, DO, Dental, etc.

This is your justification for making a generalization about Podiatry applicants.

In order to justify your generalization, you make the assumption that if a student applies to medical/professional schools besides Podiatric medicine, they are using Podiatry as a backup.

Brodiatrist said:
You hear very creative, PC, explanations as to how everyone's chosen Pod, but the reality is that it's the next best thing.

The reality is that this is your opinion based on your observations, but it is not a fact.

janV88 · Dec 28, 2009

I should clarify my original post. For a good part of my undergrad I was set on optometry. The semester before applying I needed to get my optometrist LOR so I shadowed my optometrist for several weekends. As i was shadowing, I knew I wanted to do something more medical but because of pressure from my family I felt like I really didn't have a choice but to apply anyways. I felt like I was being too picky because although it is not exactly what I wanted...it is a respectable profession. And who is content with 100% of their job anyways? So I applied to 1 school. 1 school because it is in my home town, I wanted to show my parents that I was applying, and I figured if I get in then I would go. I didn't get in. While I had been waiting for my acceptance/rejection I had begun to research other fields. More particularly DO. I knew MD was out of the question because of my relatively low gpa.

I found out that yes if you go to medical school you have a wide range of specialties to choose from but the most sought after specialties are very difficult to get into. From talking to a lot of med students/residents, I noticed that the most sought after specialites had a few things in common.
1) good hours and no/minimal call
2) mix of sx and dx
3) lots of money
Podiatry pretty much gaurantees 1 and 2 and has the potential for 3. So I shadowed a podiatrist. What I saw the first day blew me away. I knew right then and there that this is what I wanted to do for a career. So I stayed a 5th year for undergrad to take some extra classes and took the MCAT (scored 30+). My brother and my mom suggested that I also apply DO...I didn't because I knew I wanted podiatry.

My only regret from my somewhat long undegraduate journey (5 years)...I wish I had known about podiatry sooner. I could've finished my pre-reqs and MCAT in 3 years and started podiatry school 2 years earlier.

Brodiatrist · Dec 28, 2009

that1guyfromFL said:
This is a generalization about Podiatry applicants.

This is your justification for making a generalization about Podiatry applicants.

In order to justify your generalization, you make the assumption that if a student applies to medical/professional schools besides Podiatric medicine, they are using Podiatry as a backup.

The reality is that this is your opinion based on your observations, but it is not a fact.

No. Over 90% of our applicants for the last 2 years applied to some other professional school and did not get in. That is a fact, and not true for only one school. You may be an exception, but not the rule. To say that most applicants are purely pre-pod is ignorant of the facts. They are a minority. End of story.

demayette · Dec 28, 2009

whiskers said:
They say the same thing about Osteopathic school and dentistry to some degree. They also say this about PAs etc. It seems that your statement is mostly true about the osteopathic profession, who are really the only ones who mimic the MDs almost 100%. We podiatrists have always been involved with the foot and ankle which was neglected and still is neglected by the medical field. I've never seen a MD trim a toe nail nor a callus nor will they. They would butcher and make the patient bleed to death probably.

Trust me, there is not some vast envy of MDs going on out there like you seem to think. In fact if you can do math, you would see that Podiatry is actually a way better value in terms of cash than a medical degree to do the same damn thing.

The basic fact is as a physician, you will NOT get rich. You will be a middle class dolt worker bee for the rest of your life. You will never be famous or admired.

Sorry but it's just another average job. BTW so many other professions are making more money and benefits than physicians that it is amazing that anyone would want to do this crap.

But you can continue believing in the fame and fortune routine and how everyone has MD envy. LMAO.

BTW, you can get an MD degree from any crap hole country and practice in america. It's not hard to get.

And in my opinion the only ones who really wanted to be an MD and couldnt get in are the ones doing foreign MDs and DO. And there is nothing wrong with those Doctors IMO.

I love the fact that foreign medical graduates can practice and most of them are great physicians and hard workers. So basically I could care less where you were trained and what you do to feed yourself and family.

The consensus is that a person making $180,000/yr is in the "rich class" according to many sociology books. Most physicians or pods make that. Therefore, they are rich.

Bones DO · Dec 28, 2009

At least well-off I'd say! 🙂

spo01 · Dec 28, 2009

Brodiatrist said:
I can assure you this is NOT the case. Podiatry is, and always has been, a backup for students who could not get into general medicine. It's a great profession, but podiatry has is niche, and currently it's the alternative to those who could not go the general route. I should add that the reason I'm spouting this is simply because I do work with admissions and over the past few years while interviewing candidates over 90% have applied to MD, DO, Dental, etc. You hear very creative, PC, explanations as to how everyone's chosen Pod, but the reality is that it's the next best thing. Nothing wrong with that, but let's call a spade a spade. You'll grow to love it, promise.

I never understood this, people will complain about the initials MD vs DPM vs DO vs blah blah blah or how pod is a back up for MD. It just doesn't hold weight. Any fool can become a doctor and the caribbean MD schools will welcome you with open arms and leave a mint on your god damn pillow in the morning. Come to Miami here and half the docs are carribean MDs and noone questions it, what they care about is whether you know your **** or if you don't, same with podiatry.

demayette · Dec 28, 2009

spo01 said:
I never understood this, people will complain about the initials MD vs DPM vs DO vs blah blah blah or how pod is a back up for MD. It just doesn't hold weight. Any fool can become a doctor and the caribbean MD schools will welcome you with open arms and leave a mint on your god damn pillow in the morning. Come to Miami here and half the docs are carribean MDs and noone questions it, what they care about is whether you know your **** or if you don't, same with podiatry.

Let me say in advance that I am not here to defend any caribbean med schools because the majority the of them are diploma mills. However, I think you are misinformed. There the big 4 med schools in the caribbean that have arguably comparable stats to many DO schools in the US and better stats than pod schools. You have to differenciate the diploma mills to the big 4. In addition, going o the caribbean as you know will not make you a physician automatically; you have to pass the USMLE and find a residency; and finding residencies for FMG is not easy if someone dont have stellar board...And many who go to the caribbean dont make it. Trying to make podriatry better than a medical degree in the caribbean will not fly and also I dont think it is proper for someone to assume that podriatry is a back up plan for most pod applicants.

spo01 · Dec 29, 2009

demayette said:
Let me say in advance that I am not here to defend any caribbean med schools because the majority the of them are diploma mills. However, I think you are misinformed. There the big 4 med schools in the caribbean that have arguably comparable stats to many DO schools in the US and better stats than pod schools. You have to differenciate the diploma mills to the big 4. In addition, going o the caribbean as you know will not make you a physician automatically; you have to pass the USMLE and find a residency; and finding residencies for FMG is not easy if someone dont have stellar board...And many who go to the caribbean dont make it. Trying to make podriatry better than a medical degree in the caribbean will not fly and also I dont think it is proper for someone to assume that podriatry is a back up plan for most pod applicants.

No, I'm not misinformed. And nowhere did I mention that podiatry is better than a medical degree from the carribean. If anything I'm somewhat defending the Carribbean schools by saying there's a ton of doctors in Miami who are Carribbean MD grads (my doc down here is one of them) and noone cares that they went to the Carribbean, they only care about if the person is a good doctor or not.

My point is any fool can become a doctor (whether it be DPM, MD, DO, DC, DDS, etc), but the initials don't mean a damn thing or automatically make you a "good doctor", you have to really know your stuff and earn respect over time to be a good doctor and that is what matters. And when people say podiatry is a "back up for MD" it doesn't mean much because there is always some type of Carribbean school that will more than likely accept you and will give you the chance to become a good doctor. Because yes, there are many schools that have lower admission standards then the lowest stat pod school. I don't feel it is necessary to differentiate what type of Carribbean school but you do which is fine...just don't put words into my mouth.

demayette · Dec 29, 2009

spo01 said:
No, I'm not misinformed. And nowhere did I mention that podiatry is better than a medical degree from the carribean. If anything I'm somewhat defending the Carribbean schools by saying there's a ton of doctors in Miami who are Carribbean MD grads (my doc down here is one of them) and noone cares that they went to the Carribbean, they only care about if the person is a good doctor or not.

My point is any fool can become a doctor (whether it be DPM, MD, DO, DC, DDS, etc), but the initials don't mean a damn thing or automatically make you a "good doctor", you have to really know your stuff and earn respect over time to be a good doctor and that is what matters. And when people say podiatry is a "back up for MD" it doesn't mean much because there is always some type of Carribbean school that will more than likely accept you and will give you the chance to become a good doctor. Because yes, there are many schools that have lower admission standards then the lowest stat pod school. I don't feel it is necessary to differentiate what type of Carribbean school but you do which is fine...just don't put words into my mouth.

I apologize if I misinterpreted your post...

catchburns · Dec 29, 2009

I think its also important to point out that some Caribbean medical schools such as Ross and St. George have higher first-time pass rates on the boards than many other respected MD or DO schools. They also place very well in some very good residencies.

whiskers · Dec 31, 2009

Ok so what if it were really 90% who couldn't get into medical school is true...

Does that make them an idiot for finding another career that pays more than family practice or pediatrics or psychiatry or etc etc etc?

I mean do you expect these people to drop their balls and hide in a bush and starve to death?

I can't believe this even matters to anyone!

Maybe it's an idiot who would go to medical school to make less than a humble podiatrist who just clips nails all day long versus the real doctor that works 10000000 times harder in your own mind and are sooooo much more talented relegated to treating colds and ear infections all day long... Who really is the fool????

At least I can inject a joint without the fear of a lawsuit or cut out a growth....

But again, please remember the #1 people who couldn't get into MD school in the USA are the ones in DO and caribbean schools followed far behind by podiatry. So go pick at them 1st then if you have time left over, you can come on here and make all of us feel bad about ourselves. NOT. LMAO

Again, everyone makes their own way in life. I could care less what people do to legally feed their families and live their dreams.
Or maybe they are idiots for doing family practice or peds for less than what a dirty old pod makes.

In the end it is usually the biggest nobodies who never accomplished anything who thrive on this whole degree thing.

catchburns · Jan 1, 2010

whiskers said:
Ok so what if it were really 90% who couldn't get into medical school is true...

Does that make them an idiot for finding another career that pays more than family practice or pediatrics or psychiatry or etc etc etc?

I mean do you expect these people to drop their balls and hide in a bush and starve to death?

I can't believe this even matters to anyone!

Maybe it's an idiot who would go to medical school to make less than a humble podiatrist who just clips nails all day long versus the real doctor that works 10000000 times harder in your own mind and are sooooo much more talented relegated to treating colds and ear infections all day long... Who really is the fool????

At least I can inject a joint without the fear of a lawsuit or cut out a growth....

But again, please remember the #1 people who couldn't get into MD school in the USA are the ones in DO and caribbean schools followed far behind by podiatry. So go pick at them 1st then if you have time left over, you can come on here and make all of us feel bad about ourselves. NOT. LMAO

Again, everyone makes their own way in life. I could care less what people do to legally feed their families and live their dreams.
Or maybe they are idiots for doing family practice or peds for less than what a dirty old pod makes.

In the end it is usually the biggest nobodies who never accomplished anything who thrive on this whole degree thing.

I don't think anyone is questioning the intelligence of people choosing a career that brings in a good salary. I think the real issue that people are addressing when stating that Podiatry is picked as a second choice for many students, is that this tends to mean that the profession is gaining a lower number of qualified applicants. Although I agree that undergrad doesn't necessarily determine whether someone is going to make a good podiatrist, it stands to reason that lower qualifications for entrance probably mean more students with poor study habits and therefore, less likely to learn everything necessary to be a good physician.

The reason this is an issue is because when we become practicing podiatrists, we are going to be judged based on what people experience from other podiatrists as well. A bad practitioner can make ALL of us look bad.

MaseratiGT · Jan 2, 2010

catchburns said:
I don't think anyone is questioning the intelligence of people choosing a career that brings in a good salary. I think the real issue that people are addressing when stating that Podiatry is picked as a second choice for many students, is that this tends to mean that the profession is gaining a lower number of qualified applicants. Although I agree that undergrad doesn't necessarily determine whether someone is going to make a good podiatrist, it stands to reason that lower qualifications for entrance probably mean more students with poor study habits and therefore, less likely to learn everything necessary to be a good physician.

The reason this is an issue is because when we become practicing podiatrists, we are going to be judged based on what people experience from other podiatrists as well. A bad practitioner can make ALL of us look bad.

I agree with Whiskers. I think it's a non-issue as well. It only becomes an issue when people make generalized statements about the profession, which make it seem like a sub-standard profession, suited only for those who can't get into some other medical program. .

There are crappy practitioners in all fields of healthcare. There is no way to ensure that everyone who graduated is A+, great personality student. Not everything wrong in this profession means it can be blamed it on Dr. X CrapGuy, for being a poor podiatrist.

Why Podiatry

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