If pod school is just as hard as med school, why are the standards of acceptance so much lower?

[AttackNME]

Now, what about job security? Do you know any Pods that are currently unemployed that graduated with you? If so, why? If you are not picky and don’t have to live in SoCal or New York, can you find a job pretty readily?

I remember someone on the forums mentioning that each position has something like 50 applicants. Is it really that bad?

As long as humans have feet and you have an ounce of work ethic, there is a job. There are jobs everywhere if you aren’t picky.

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[air bud]

It’s more than that big guy. First year resident here and I’m always explaining my training, and what we are or aren’t allowed to do while in practice. Not to mention my attendings who are always handling back handed comments from other docs/nurses/even some patients. Had a patient bust my chops the other day wondering “why does it take 7 years to be qualified to cut her nails?” After the 1000th time of explaining what we do outside of clinic, she just chuckled.

I’ve been going back and forth on whether to post on this thread but I guess I’m here. My above comment is what Airbud was trying to explain to you all pre-pods. Podiatry can be a great field, but you’re going to need thick skin, and realistic understanding how majority of pods practice. Would be great to land that ortho spot, be full partner, and be their f&a surgeon. But you’re talking about maybe 3-5% of our profession, maybe less. Most of us will need to preform wound care and run a traditional “chip and clip” clinic in order to stay alive financially to perform the surgeries were trained to do. Not to mention fights with hospital privileging boards to allow us to preform ankle/calf/lisfranc fractures. That’s just reality of the situation. Like I said, I’m a first resident and already seeing this. It’s crazy how naive (or blind) I was before now.

And as for those who believe going to schools with DO programs means you’ll be on par with med students, you’re wrong. Airbud pointed this fact out earlier with his experience at DMU, and my co-residents from Midwestern and western echo his message. You learn the biomedical sciences together, and that’s great. But once you get to clinicals, it’s a different ball game. The general medicine I, and any other pod resident I’ve talked to, was memorized for test/rotations, and dumped when we needed to get ready for externships and boards. By buddy from Western illustrated it beautifully, pointing out he didn’t have to take shelf exams after each clinical rotation, and not had to continue to build this medical knowledge from rotation to rotation. This discrepancy in training has become more noticeable during my intern year. I, and co-residents m, are in awe the level other interns operate while on rounds at the intuition we’re working. But with hard work, we’re surviving, and finally starting to learn how to medically manage a patient. That’s how it goes no matter where you go to school. You’ll know Podiatry, but will have to earn respect of other residents while on rounds.

Not trying to “poo poo” here. Still happy I’m in the field bc I’m getting great training from some of the best pods in the country, and I enjoy most aspects of Podiatry (except calluses, I hate calluses). But I know the fight isn’t going to stop when I’m an attending. Rant over, just trying to help some of you young bucks realize that arguing with attendings on these forums whether on training, respect, or pay, you sound so naive bc you haven’t stepped foot into a hospital as a pod student/resident/attending. Not a bad thing, we were all preaching the same thing when we started school too. Just try and take what’s been mentioned on these forums by those ahead of you, so not only are you prepared to handle yours

This is

 

[rph3664]

What was her region?

Southern Colorado

 

[GypsyHummus]

I would imagine you have to have a pretty good sense of humor to be a podiatrist and be able to take people digging at your credentials. Just find a way to rebut, with charm!

“It takes 7 years for them to just clip toenails?” -Nurse

“Yeah, right? You should tell those pod schools to make it less time, my student loans would thank you” -Pod

Or

“What can you even do”-MD
“Foot Dentist” -DPM

“You became a Pod just because u couldn’t get into a real Med school” -Dude
“Better than a worthless undergrad major working at Starbucks at 40” -Pod

 

[BioPod]

I would imagine you have to have a pretty good sense of humor to be a podiatrist and be able to take people digging at your credentials. Just find a way to rebut, with charm!

“It takes 7 years for them to just clip toenails?” -Nurse

“Yeah, right? You should tell those pod schools to make it less time, my student loans would thank you” -Pod

Or

“What can you even do”-MD
“Foot Dentist” -DPM

“You became a Pod just because u couldn’t get into a real Med school” -Dude
“Better than a worthless undergrad major working at Starbucks at 40” -Pod

Sometimes it's good to use humor, but sometimes it's good to try and explain things to people that honestly don't understand. If we don't spread the message and educate our peers/fellow medical professionals, who will? I understand it gets annoying and frustrating, but it helps move the profession forward and it spreads a positive message. One ignorant person at a time.

 

[Cranjis McBasketball]

This discrepancy in training has become more noticeable during my intern year. I, and co-residents m, are in awe the level other interns operate while on rounds at the intuition we’re working.

Are the other interns pod students at other schools? Like are you saying the DO combination ISNT good for Podiatry? Or are these interns DO interns?

 

[Robert De Niro]

Are the other interns pod students at other schools? Like are you saying the DO combination ISNT good for Podiatry? Or are these interns DO interns?

There is a big discrepancy between us pod interns (first year residents) and other MD/DO interns. My intern class has graduates from Kent, Western, and Scholl, along with graduates from Midwestern and CCPM in the class ahead of us. All of us have noticed the higher level of knowledge from our MD/DO counterparts, and lesser expectations from our attendings for us pod residents. And the reasoning is simple.... our clinical experiences during school dont require us to build and constantly exam our general Medicine knowledge. We learn gen med for lecture exams and/or one rotation, but there’s no shelf exam to study for. INow in terms of podiatric Medicine or areas of Medicine that overlaps in our field, we hold our own (I got tons of gout patients during Rheum rotation). Currently, that’s where we make the biggest contributions and impressions. Heck, during my radio rotation, I was helping the radio resident read f&a X-rays and explaining certain fixation methods and as to why they used that screw there or explain staging of PTTD. If I remember airbud’s previous posts (correct me if I’m wrong, not trying to put words in others mouth) felt the same way coming from DMU.

And for final clarification, this isn’t a bad thing if you’re accepting the fact that we are Podiatrists and that’s what we’re trained to be. It only becomes a problem when you’re throwing the term “physician” or “parity” when you can’t pick out a murmur that leads the MD intern towards the path for a correct a/p.

 

[Cranjis McBasketball]

There is a big discrepancy between us pod interns (first year residents) and other MD/DO interns. My intern class has graduates from Kent, Western, and Scholl, along with graduates from Midwestern and CCPM in the class ahead of us. All of us have noticed the higher level of knowledge from our MD/DO counterparts, and lesser expectations from our attendings for us pod residents. And the reasoning is simple.... our clinical experiences during school dont require us to build and constantly exam our general Medicine knowledge. We learn gen med for lecture exams and/or one rotation, but there’s no shelf exam to study for. INow in terms of podiatric Medicine or areas of Medicine that overlaps in our field, we hold our own (I got tons of gout patients during Rheum rotation). Currently, that’s where we make the biggest contributions and impressions. Heck, during my radio rotation, I was helping the radio resident read f&a X-rays and explaining certain fixation methods and as to why they used that screw there or explain staging of PTTD. If I remember airbud’s previous posts (correct me if I’m wrong, not trying to put words in others mouth) felt the same way coming from DMU.

And for final clarification, this isn’t a bad thing if you’re accepting the fact that we are Podiatrists and that’s what we’re trained to be. It only becomes a problem when you’re throwing the term “physician” or “parity” when you can’t pick out a murmur that leads the MD intern towards the path for a correct a/p.

Yeah that makes sense. So would you say you are glad you went to a podiatry school where the pod and DO curriculum were combined (DMU, AZ, Western) or looking back, do you wish you would have attended a school where the focus was on podiatry? I only ask because I have heard from some AZPod graduates that they feel a little behind on their clerkships when it comes to podiatric medicine, compared to the other externs from other schools.

 

[Robert De Niro]

Yeah that makes sense. So would you say you are glad you went to a podiatry school where the pod and DO curriculum were combined (DMU, AZ, Western) or looking back, do you wish you would have attended a school where the focus was on podiatry? I only ask because I have heard from some AZPod graduates that they feel a little behind on their clerkships when it comes to podiatric medicine, compared to the other externs from other schools.

I went to Kent so I guess I'm in the "focus was on podiatry" group (although our biomedical professors teach the same curriculum at Case Western dental, but why they don't advertise that fact is beyond me, but I digress). My stance on school is and will always be go where your heart takes you. If you're motivated and truly want this as a profession, you'll learn what you need to learn to succeed during externships and pass boards. My co-resident from Midwestern is not "behind" on his podiatric medicine and is doing quite well.

 

[Cranjis McBasketball]

I went to Kent so I guess I'm in the "focus was on podiatry" group (although our biomedical professors teach the same curriculum at Case Western dental, but why they don't advertise that fact is beyond me, but I digress). My stance on school is and will always be go where your heart takes you. If you're motivated and truly want this as a profession, you'll learn what you need to learn to succeed during externships and pass boards. My co-resident from Midwestern is not "behind" on his podiatric medicine and is doing quite well.

Thats great to hear. It probably isnt the norm. Thanks!

 

[DexterMorganSK]

There is a big discrepancy between us pod interns (first year residents) and other MD/DO interns. My intern class has graduates from Kent, Western, and Scholl, along with graduates from Midwestern and CCPM in the class ahead of us. All of us have noticed the higher level of knowledge from our MD/DO counterparts, and lesser expectations from our attendings for us pod residents. And the reasoning is simple.... our clinical experiences during school dont require us to build and constantly exam our general Medicine knowledge. We learn gen med for lecture exams and/or one rotation, but there’s no shelf exam to study for. INow in terms of podiatric Medicine or areas of Medicine that overlaps in our field, we hold our own (I got tons of gout patients during Rheum rotation). Currently, that’s where we make the biggest contributions and impressions. Heck, during my radio rotation, I was helping the radio resident read f&a X-rays and explaining certain fixation methods and as to why they used that screw there or explain staging of PTTD. If I remember airbud’s previous posts (correct me if I’m wrong, not trying to put words in others mouth) felt the same way coming from DMU.

And for final clarification, this isn’t a bad thing if you’re accepting the fact that we are Podiatrists and that’s what we’re trained to be. It only becomes a problem when you’re throwing the term “physician” or “parity” when you can’t pick out a murmur that leads the MD intern towards the path for a correct a/p.

The no shelf requirement bugs me as well but its all due to the Pod clinical curriculum vs the MD/DO ones.

But, I thought boards Part 2 was all about years 3/4...so we have to know stuff from the rotations for this exam..right?

 

[GypsyHummus]

Did you feel prepared for Boards when you didn’t have to take shelf exams?

I went to Kent so I guess I'm in the "focus was on podiatry" group (although our biomedical professors teach the same curriculum at Case Western dental, but why they don't advertise that fact is beyond me, but I digress). My stance on school is and will always be go where your heart takes you. If you're motivated and truly want this as a profession, you'll learn what you need to learn to succeed during externships and pass boards. My co-resident from Midwestern is not "behind" on his podiatric medicine and is doing quite well.

 

[AttackNME]

The no shelf requirement bugs me as well but its all due to the Pod clinical curriculum vs the MD/DO ones.

But, I thought boards Part 2 was all about years 3/4...so we have to know stuff from the rotations for this exam..right?

As a student, I’ve done externships and rotations with Ivy League medical students, and during each rotation, I too felt the strong desire to study for the shelf exam as they are, to prove that I could be one of them. After the rotation, I didn’t give a hoot. The same pattern repeated itself for every rotation outside of podiatry and even into residency. Once in practice, I felt I belonged with everyone else in the medical field because I’m good at my job. I think in conclusion, when you spend everyday with a group of people with similarities for a month and you’re the odd one out, it’s natural to want to feel like part of the group. I encourage you to take this energy and channel it into studying the **** out of whatever rotation you’re on, because ultimately the only thing that matters is for you to learn. Imposing new testing requirements upon ourselves just so we could say “we are no different from them because we take the same tests and have the same requirements” to me is the easy way out. Let me elaborate a bit more:

Being in academics, I’ve had MD students rotate in my clinic, and I’ll teach them as much as I think they would need to know. This includes the basics of causes and treatment of bunion deformities, heel pain, arch pain, etc. I will teach them a couple of the most common techniques to treat the bunion (Austin, Lapidus), recovery time for each, and treatment preferences from docs with different training. I keep it simple so they can remember the key points. I don’t bother mentioning all of the ridiculous variations of osteotomies because it is of very low yield for them to learn it, so it’s not worth my effort to teach it. However, if this particular allopathic medical student demonstrates interest and asks questions about other ways to treat the bunion, then hell yea I’ll get pumped up and will happily teach them. I’ll also be impressed that they want to know more than they need to know. To me, it tells me that if this person is this hungry for information that I don’t think he really needs to know, then he/she must REALLY know their stuff!

Understand that it is the same scenario for attendings of other fields when dealing with a podiatry student, it’s nothing personal. However, if you show interest by reading, asking more questions, they will be impressed, and it translates into more respect for what you do.

 

[BioPod]

There is a big discrepancy between us pod interns (first year residents) and other MD/DO interns. My intern class has graduates from Kent, Western, and Scholl, along with graduates from Midwestern and CCPM in the class ahead of us. All of us have noticed the higher level of knowledge from our MD/DO counterparts, and lesser expectations from our attendings for us pod residents. And the reasoning is simple.... our clinical experiences during school dont require us to build and constantly exam our general Medicine knowledge. We learn gen med for lecture exams and/or one rotation, but there’s no shelf exam to study for. INow in terms of podiatric Medicine or areas of Medicine that overlaps in our field, we hold our own (I got tons of gout patients during Rheum rotation). Currently, that’s where we make the biggest contributions and impressions. Heck, during my radio rotation, I was helping the radio resident read f&a X-rays and explaining certain fixation methods and as to why they used that screw there or explain staging of PTTD. If I remember airbud’s previous posts (correct me if I’m wrong, not trying to put words in others mouth) felt the same way coming from DMU.

And for final clarification, this isn’t a bad thing if you’re accepting the fact that we are Podiatrists and that’s what we’re trained to be. It only becomes a problem when you’re throwing the term “physician” or “parity” when you can’t pick out a murmur that leads the MD intern towards the path for a correct a/p.

I am a 3rd year resident. I never felt this way when I was on my off service rotations. I am at a major university hospital. There were times when on a medicine rotation where I felt like I had to look stuff up to remember, but that's nothing to be ashamed of. The majority of the time I was taught it while in podiatry school, but forgot. It should come as no surprise to you that someone who is going into medicine is going to know more about medicine than you. They should. It's their specialty. Don't assume that this translates to all other aspects of medicine and that they just know it all. I assure you, they do not.

 

[Robert De Niro]

I am a 3rd year resident. I never felt this way when I was on my off service rotations. I am at a major university hospital. There were times when on a medicine rotation where I felt like I had to look stuff up to remember, but that's nothing to be ashamed of. The majority of the time I was taught it while in podiatry school, but forgot. It should come as no surprise to you that someone who is going into medicine is going to know more about medicine than you. They should. It's their specialty. Don't assume that this translates to all other aspects of medicine and that they just know it all. I assure you, they do not.

Other than not noticing a discrepancy between fellow MD/DO interns, I’m not sure what you’re disagreeing with me. I never said I’m ashamed nor surprised that Medicine residents know more about medicine than me and my co-residents. In fact I said “it’s not a bad thing bc were trained to be pods.” Also, I did mention that there were parts of medicine I’ve been able to impress a bit, especially aspects that bleed into our prefession (I mentioned my Rheum and radio rotations).

Other than that, I’m glad you haven’t felt the same way during off rotations. I tip my cap to you to being able to hold your own. Maybe it’s just my institution where we complete our intern year. I do know that many of my fellow classmates at different programs feel similar to what I’m experiencing. All of that led me to my stance, but I’m truly happy to hear it’s not the norm for anyone else.

 

[RNthenDoc]

I would imagine you have to have a pretty good sense of humor to be a podiatrist and be able to take people digging at your credentials. Just find a way to rebut, with charm!

“It takes 7 years for them to just clip toenails?” -Nurse

“Yeah, right? You should tell those pod schools to make it less time, my student loans would thank you” -Pod

Or

“What can you even do”-MD
“Foot Dentist” -DPM

“You became a Pod just because u couldn’t get into a real Med school” -Dude
“Better than a worthless undergrad major working at Starbucks at 40” -Pod

As a male nurse, it makes me chuckle when people have low self-esteem about being a podiatrist, DO, psychiatrist... Whatever their background tends to look down on.

Try being a male nurse for one day.

 

[heybrother]

I found it easier to just watch Meet the Parents.