I do not think the leadership who developed this campaign are "bad" people. I have met several of them and they seem to care tremendously and give tirelessly to the cause of podiatry as a whole. The fact that many of them are in business with PE is unfortunate, and it hurts their credibility for good reason. PE depresses the individual prospects of providers or professionals, that has been shown across all specialties and industries.
Other fields in medicine (PAs, pharmacy, PT) have been crushed by saturation. To deny this is to deny basic economics and blind yourself to a predictable future (or present).
The real problem we have is applicant and matriculate quality. We need smart people with good communication skills to continue what has been a tremendous rise of our field. We are not getting that now, it's in the statistics.
In a free market, I don't think the APMA can control the opening of new schools, so they are trying to increase applicants to improve the applicant pool/quality of student.
The problem they have and will continue to experience is this: if they succeed the schools will just increase their class size and the quality of student will decrease again. All of this is so simple to understand and has been happening in front of us all for years.
The market has responded. Schools increased tuition beyond the payoff. Students realized the investment was poor. At the same time new schools opened because we have no real control over that.
This problem will continue forever until our job market reaches the point that the investment becomes worthwhile. It does not have to be as good of an investment as medical school, but it needs to be worthwhile with lower risk than the current environment. We need to be a leaner profession if we want higher satisfaction. We need to reduce output which will increase the quality of training because less mouths to feed and more food to hunt when training is over. Then we need to normalize use of mid levels. A podiatry that functions in surgical wound care, sports medicine/surgery, and elective foot and ankle surgery would be an extremely popular career. If 3-4 schools closed, I really think we would all be better off in 5-10 years, including incoming students.
My experience, I am not disgruntled. I have a decent job but limited growth. I have done a lot of surgery and am fully abfas certified and did a competitive residency and fellowship. I've never made more than 250,000 and my ceiling is probably 300,000. It's not bad but I have been looking casually for a new job for 6 months. I will not do podiatry private practice or PE. I am not able to move my family. For 6 months I have looked every day for a reasonable option in my area, and I have not submitted a single application. Because there is nowhere to apply to at this time. If I were to lose my position, I would probably have to open up on my own.
The market will correct. I think schools will close. Podiatrist's will work for nearly every hospital system in the country. It will never be MD or DO, but it doesn't have to be. This is my optimistic view of the career.
The campaign by APMA could help if the schools did not increase seats. But they will if they can.
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