Doesn't this sound deceiving?

[Deep Fibular]

I went on the CCPM website and looked at the faq section and stumbled on this question and answer. Does this sound a little deceiving?

Question: Do I need to worry about getting a residency training program?

Answer: To insure that 100% of future eligible graduates receive residency training, CCPM offers a guarantee that entering students will be placed in at least a one-year residency program if eligible.

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Members don't see this ad.

 

[efs]

I don't doubt it at all. I am sure that if they have problems placing 1-2-3 students in residency programs, that they can come up with their own local 1 year residency programs. This = 10% placement. Doesn't say anything about what you might do from there. I think this might be common to all the schools.

I know of a couple people who lost their residency slots due to a hospital closing. This hosptital closed down all of its residency programs, and was then bought out by another hospital system. The school worked with the students to help them find alternatives for that year. Some chose to find alternate residencies the following year. (I don't know what happened to all of them.)

With a lower number of students, and an increased number of resiencies I would expect practically all students to be able to find residencies. Will they be the student's first choice places? Not always.

I think most of the other schools could make similar claims.

 

[Toejam]

The problem with this is that it is the same "guarantee" that CCPM made for my class (1998). They ended up creating something like 20-25 residencies for those who didn't match. I can tell you that many of these creations were nothing more than pathetic attempts to ameliorate the concerns of graduates and they totally missed the boat in terms of providing a quality residency experience. Some of them were nothing more than vehicles to aid some unscrupulous DPM in his/her quest to make more money by abusing the podiatry resident. Beyond that, they were often a total waste of time and didn't offer much of a learning environment (no patients).

 

[efs]

I'm curious. Why were there somthing like 20-25 people who did not match? (And how did that number correlate to class size?)
Was there that much of a discrepancy between the number of graduates and the number of residencies at the time? This should have improved by now. Where there many people who were just not competetive? Where the numbers similar at the others schools?

I know there are a number of residencies that have relationships with various schools, and only take students from those schools. In fact, most of them are paid to do so. How do you think this contributes to the quality issue?

 

[Toejam]

This might be posted twice.

Anyway, all I can tell you is that there were about 80 grads in my class and I know that at least 15 or so didn't match with anything. I heard many different numbers (up to 25) but I'll admit I don't know the facts.

What I do know is that there were MANY who didn't match with anything (in relation to our class size) and the schools were scrambling to create ANY kind of residency to fill the void. Of course, none of these last minute creations were surgicals (God forbid) and many of them were UNFUNDED! They were all PPMR's and RPR's and some of them were nothing more than vehicles to grease the wallets of the "residency directors". I'm not being bitter here, just telling you the facts. Some of them were just assisting a pod in the office and tooling around in a car to nursing homes to fatten their bank accounts. Totally appalling!

As a side note, I had a friend in my class who didn't match with anything and he was our freakin' class president! He also had a respectable GPA, was extremely well liked and a very hard worker. I eventually lobbied (with some other friends) to have a spot created for him at L.A. County (PPMR) and he did his residency there. He subsequently did a second year in Arizona, which was UNFUNDED! I mean, I'm sorry, this is so incredible repulsive to me that someone will take a resident and use them for labor and NOT PAY THEM ANYTHING!!!!!! This guy was married with two children to support!! Sickening!!! My PPMR at L.A. County was, for all intents and purposes, UNFUNDED! They gave us a "stipend" of 10k a year (while all of the other residents were making about 30k or more). I was a 37 year old podiatry resident, making 10k a year, working 80 plus hours at one of the busiest hospitals in the world AND waiting table on the weekends just so I could pay my f*$#ing bills!!!! Still wondering why I'm a little bitter about podiatry!? I was getting paged constantly while I was serving salads and beer. I had to scrub out early on cases just so I could make it to work on time. It was surreal.

I'm not whining, just venting about one of the dozens and dozens of unbelievably absurd moments in my podiatry career.

 

[Deep Fibular]

I hope this is not what I have to look forward too!

 

[Toejam]

By the way, wasn't the fibula a bitch to study!?

I think it has to be better for you, Fib. There are far less students and, I presume, a better ratio of "crap" residencies to good ones.

A lot of the created residencies in my day have fallen by the wayside. I would be a little wary of going to one with no track record. There are several potential, inherent problems with new residencies. Try and match with one that has a good rep. That's all I say.

 

[efs]

Even though it has only been a few short years, I think the situation that current students are looking at is different. I also suspect it will continue to improve. The number of graduating students has declined below the number of residency positions available, and this will cause the weaker programs to close.

There is more to be said on this, but due to lack of time, I will just say that I think it looks promising. (Just my opinion, based on the reading I have done, the places I have seen, an the people I have talked to.)