DO vs PDM?

[Bacchus]

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I try. Haha, but this is how most people say it. My PharmD friends don't call it medical school; my nursing friends don't either. And this girl going to PCO doesn't call it medical school either.

 

[Rendar5]

Tell me next time you see a urologist or even an IM called into a head trauma case.

Hey, EM can handle that and everything else for that matter...well, anything not outpatient, lol...OMG Chronic Diabetes and Hypertension Management! Ruuuuuuuuuuuun!

Honestly, from my perspective as an EM-oriented person, Podiatrists are doctors who just happened to specialize before med school as opposed to after it (dentists too). We learn from them and dentists in our residency, as well as from other medical specialties that occur after med school. So, sure they are boxed in at the feet, but many fields are boxed in, it just happens sooner rather than later

 

[JaggerPlate]

It is still "medical school", you are receiving medical training, are you not?

You learn medical training in dental school too, is that medical school?? I learned a ton of anatomy and physiological biochemistry in undergrad, was that medical school??

The answer is no. It's podiatry school. There is honestly no shame in it. Does calling in podiatry school not represent the training/ what it really is??

Maybe I'm reading into your post too much, if I am, sorry.

I think so. I wouldn't have asked if I wanted to put pods down ... I would have just lit into the poster. However, I do want to mention that posts like yours make it look like pods have a complex, and I would try to act less defensive, and just be proud/content with pods role in medicine.

 

[hopefuldoc87]

It is still "medical school", you are receiving medical training, are you not?

Come on now. If it truly was medical school, then SDN would have listed podiatry threads under the MEDICAL STUDENT forums. And people that are in Podiatry School would be listed as Medical Students, like MD and DO students are. It's just another area of health care, like dentistry, pharmacy, PA, etc. It's not a bad thing, and it's not any less respectable. It's just not medical school.

I don't blindly follow, but I think the folks that run SDN know a little more about the proper classifications.

 

[medhacker]

-The admission standards for POD schools are pathetic. I'm sorry POD students/pre-POD students ... I recently read a thread where someone with a 16 MCAT (total) was being told to 'go for it' or 'try to pull it up to a 19/20'

Who cares?

Since when does an MCAT score determine clinical ability?

I met pod students who were better at internal medicine than many MD/DO students...




_______________________________________________
Medhacker an FP doing cosmetic surgery, pissing off the plastics and the derms...and loving every single minute of it!

 

[donkeykong1]

true that

 

[ofoshoukno]

To add to the last post, yeah in the end a MD/DO is all about MEDICINE and treating the HUMAN BODY, while this involves more diagnoses/treatments and the job is probably more complex and varied...HOWEVER, DPM is all about the PODIATRY and the FOOT...and its less diseases I would guess and less varied since it's just the foot...podiatry is just not my cup of tea, but that's my 2 cents

Word 👍

 

[NatCh]

To add to the last post, yeah in the end a MD/DO is all about MEDICINE and treating the HUMAN BODY, while this involves more diagnoses/treatments and the job is probably more complex and varied...HOWEVER, DPM is all about the PODIATRY and the FOOT...and its less diseases I would guess and less varied since it's just the foot...podiatry is just not my cup of tea, but that's my 2 cents

It's not so much that podiatry is necessarily less complex or less to know, but that you have to know it in more detail than someone who does not specialize in the foot. Any specialty gets focused and detailed; that's kind of the point.

MD and DO begins all-encompassing, but if you pick a specialty (other than Family Practice, which is probably the most well-rounded specialty out there) you will limit your area of practice but will have more expertise in that particular area. An MD or DO will learn about the foot in general, but unless you become a Foot & Ankle Orthopedic surgeon then you wouldn't likely be able to pick from the myriad bunion procedures based on radiographic and physical exam findings (and then actually perform the surgery). Then again, if you were to become a F&A Orthopedic surgeon, you wouldn't be managing congestive heart failure, breast cancer, or renal failure even though you are an MD or DO.

Consider Ophthalmology or hand surgery for example. Both are MD or DO fields and both focus on a pretty small area. Are they more or less varied or complex than the foot? Who knows? Are they more important? Who's to say? You don't need to walk on your eyeballs, but you would like to see where you're going. You don't need to run on your hands, but you would like to be able to pick up a pencil. Are they varied fields? Not so much, or at least not as much as FP.

Regardless, it's pretty silly to start asking which specialty is more important. From the perspective of the patient, the more important specialty is the one that takes care of whatever your chief complaint is. From the perspective of a career choice, the more important specialty is the one that interests you the most and is the one you think you can do for 20-30 years.

 

[rkaz]

At my school, the DO students and the POD students have the same basic sciences - so our first 2 years are identical, except the DO students take OMM classes while the POD students take classes on surgical techniques. But we are all mixed in the anatomy, biochem, histo/embryology, physiology classes etc.

 

[NormColeman4MN]

At my school, the DO students and the POD students have the same basic sciences - so our first 2 years are identical, except the DO students take OMM classes while the POD students take classes on surgical techniques. But we are all mixed in the anatomy, biochem, histo/embryology, physiology classes etc.

Do they post separate averages for the POD/DO classes? I heard the pod kids are doing pretty well in arizona.