DPM or DO

[HolyMolyEM]

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I am posting this on behlaf my wife who is accepted to both a DO school and a DPM school

She wants to do DPM because she likes physics and biomechanics . However I am a little worried about job opportunities and flexibility. (sorry totally DPM illetirate over here). She was accepted to Chicago which is gonna be over 200K in tuition (300 by the time she pays it back with interest) Can she honestly make enough to justify that?

How easy is it to find s job or start a practice or to buy a practice?

 

[MaxillofacialMN]

I am posting this on behlaf my wife who is accepted to both a DO school and a DPM school

She wants to do DPM because she likes physics and biomechanics . However I am a little worried about job opportunities and flexibility. (sorry totally DPM illetirate over here). She was accepted to Chicago which is gonna be over 200K in tuition (300 by the time she pays it back with interest) Can she honestly make enough to justify that?

How easy is it to find s job or start a practice or to buy a practice?

If you don't mind me prying: How is she accepted to both already? If it was last cycle, shouldn't she have started already....?

 

[HolyMolyEM]

she deferred both because we had to move for my residency

 

[phagocytosis]

I dont even know why I ended up on this forum and this post but to answer your question, your wife should definitely pick DO over DPM if she has that option. Being a physician will gives her the most amount of options. If she like physics she can be a radiologist, radiation oncologist, nuclear medicine etc. If she likes biomechanics then orthopedics, PM&R and probably more that I cant think off right now. Im not sure about financial part.

 

[MaxillofacialMN]

I shadowed a DO and realized podiatry is way better. Not to start a flame war, but there isn't a lot of professions with this huge variety of care, short residency (want a family?), surgery, own your own clinic, set your own hours, limited on call situations that actually require you to go in, 20% of the field makes >250k, you know exactly what you're getting into! Won't go into school wanting integrated plastics and end up matching psychiatry and then hating your life afterwards.

She might think right now she'll want, oh, say orthopedics residency, but If she gets pregnant any time in the next 10-12 years, have fun raising the child by yourself! In pod, she'll be done 8 years from today!

 

[smq123]

I dont even know why I ended up on this forum and this post but to answer your question, your wife should definitely pick DO over DPM if she has that option. Being a physician will gives her the most amount of options. If she like physics she can be a radiologist, radiation oncologist, nuclear medicine etc. If she likes biomechanics then orthopedics, PM&R and probably more that I cant think off right now. Im not sure about financial part.

That's true that being a DO offers more specialty options than a DPM. But, realistically, the chance that a DO will get a spot as a radiation oncologist or a radiologist is very low - there are no rad onc residencies for DOs. Rad onc and radiology is competitive enough for MDs. And nuclear medicine is really uncompetitive, but for a good reason - there are very few jobs. It's kind of a dead end specialty.

Same goes for ortho. It's a competitive specialty for anyone. Going to med school banking on the hope that you'll get an ortho spot is...potentially a very disappointing situation.

 

[MaxillofacialMN]

Same goes for ortho. It's a competitive specialty for anyone. Going to med school banking on the hope that you'll get an ortho spot is...potentially a very disappointing situation.

This is the reason that I keep coming back to podiatry. I know exactly what I'm getting myself into!

 

[newfeet]

I would choose DO... I realize now that I prefer a speciality like internal med or family med because surgery isn't my thing

 

[Podophile]

I would choose DO... I realize now that I prefer a speciality like internal med or family med because surgery isn't my thing

How many days a week are you in the OR?

 

[newfeet]

How many days a week are you in the OR?

I'm a resident, so I'm in surgery 3 to 5 days a week.

 

[Podophile]

I'm a resident, so I'm in surgery 3 to 5 days a week.

So you were being sarcastic, or really don't like surgery? Not judging, just wondering.

The more exposure I get to other specialties, the more I enjoy general medicine. I certainly would have been happy as a non-surgical MD/DO, but I think I will be happier as a podiatrist. Getting to do a few cases a week will be a bonus.

 

[newfeet]

So you were being sarcastic, or really don't like surgery? Not judging, just wondering.

The more exposure I get to other specialties, the more I enjoy general medicine. I certainly would have been happy as a non-surgical MD/DO, but I think I will be happier as a podiatrist. Getting to do a few cases a week will be a bonus.

No I'm not being sarcastic. It's the opposite for me, the more I get exposed the more I realize I will never be happy doing any type of surgery. I would pick being a non surgical MD/DO over DPM because the more I'm exposed the more I know I don't want to be a surgeon.

I'm trying to find a non surgical niche for myself after residency.

 

[MaxillofacialMN]

I know I'm not in the field yet, so my exposure is limited, however I have found the exact opposite to be true for myself. I shadowed an internist and found the job to be extremely boring and repetitive. Surgical specialties are anything but boring! IMO

 

[newfeet]

I know I'm not in the field yet, so my exposure is limited, however I have found the exact opposite to be true for myself. I shadowed an internist and found the job to be extremely boring and repetitive. Surgical specialties are anything but boring! IMO

Well good for you. IMO it is.

 

[Podophile]

I know I'm not in the field yet, so my exposure is limited, however I have found the exact opposite to be true for myself. I shadowed an internist and found the job to be extremely boring and repetitive. Surgical specialties are anything but boring! IMO

Shadowing an Internist is boring for everyone; it's especially boring for you because (no offense) you have little idea what the doctor is treating or why s/he is doing what they are doing. Where it becomes more interesting for me is when I start to really understand the physiology and then the pathological physiology and use that knowledge to form a differential diagnosis, an ultimate diagnosis and then a treatment plan. Yes there are some algorithms that are followed for more common diseases and pathology, but the same can be said for some podiatric pathology as well.

I do happen to enjoy the unique aspects and challenges of surgery as well, and I like that podiatry has that component.

 

[tracheatoedoc]

I am a DPM and an MD.
Podiatry is a great profession, and the postgraduate education is now what the profession has merely pretended to be in the recent past.
However, being a DO or MD is the universe compared to being a DPM.
Go DO and don't look back. Only do DPM if you know the profession well.

 

[PADPM]

Ankle Breaker,
I believe your comments about the possibility that tracheatoedoc may not be aware of post graduate training may be harsh. In his/ her post it states that the post grad training is now better ("what we pretended in the past"). So my interpretation of the comments was that the quality of the present post grad training is being acknowledged.

I actually know 3 DPM/MD's who are all practicing podiatry. I'm not sure if your comment regarding his/her degree as being from a Caribbean school is based on knowledge gained from past posts, or just a presumption.

Regardless, my real question to tracheatoedoc is what specialty he/she is now. Additionally, I believe none of us are naive and all understand that on the totem pole of prestige, we are not yet viewed on the same level as MDs or DOs by many.

But that is a weak reason not to enter a great profession.

 

[PADPM]

Understood.

 

[JonScholl]

Do some research on healthcare reform and make sure to pay attention to the details on how specialists will be affected

 

[ChineseKid]

^ more detail?

 

[tracheatoedoc]

I think my post speaks for itself. Podiatry is a good profession and post grad training is now what it should have always been. I did 2 years. When I finished the 3 year programs were very few.
And, if this woman chooses DO over DPM she may discover she really wants to be an internist or something.