what motivates someone to go into podiatry?

[Analyzethis]

I do not at all mean to be offensive-I am an MD and was just curious what motivates someont to enter podiatry?? I know you guys probably think many MD fields suck-but for me I just do not see the draw of looking at a persons foot all day-I mean if like the feet you could have done something that had feet in addition to some other stuff tomix it up-just curiosu!

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[capo]

I do not at all mean to be offensive-I am an MD and was just curious what motivates someont to enter podiatry?? I know you guys probably think many MD fields suck-but for me I just do not see the draw of looking at a persons foot all day-I mean if like the feet you could have done something that had feet in addition to some other stuff tomix it up-just curiosu!

Why are there proctologists, ob/gyn's, psychiatrists, dentists, urologists, etc. Because there is a NEED to treat these areas, correct? Thus in the same way as in ANY field of meds there's a doc for all aspects as you should know as an MD, specialists are required in every medcial discipline because of the immense complexities of the human body. Does this answer why ANY specialty is needed or desired, not just pods?

 

[Dr_Feelgood]

Most people who come to see the doctor are not the sexy hot people from across the world just coming to say hi. They are the sick and smell people, so to say looking at feet is nasty so is looking at Candida in a women's special area.

Seriously, unless you are a rich plastic surgeon then you are getting nasty things in your office.

 

[IlizaRob]

I do not at all mean to be offensive-I am an MD and was just curious what motivates someont to enter podiatry?? I know you guys probably think many MD fields suck-but for me I just do not see the draw of looking at a persons foot all day-I mean if like the feet you could have done something that had feet in addition to some other stuff tomix it up-just curiosu!

Im sure everyone has different reasons why they choose to do what they do. For me personally it was the diversity of podiatry that appealed to me. Although some, yourself included, may think that the foot and ankle are boring, there is actually quite a bit of variety. Although we are limited to a specific area of the body, we are still exposed to radiology, derm, vascular, ortho, surgery, ect. There is a good mix of clinic and OR. The determining factor for me though was the opportunity to "fix" pathologies so to speak or make the patient feel much better in one visit. Im not interested in managing chronic diseases like the internist nor do I find family practice appealing. Since the majority of med students fall into those two categories, simply leaving it up to fate was not an option. Im very happy with my decision. I hope that helped address your question. This topic has been brought up a few times by other drifters. Feel free to do a search.

 

[Podman]

I do not at all mean to be offensive-I am an MD and was just curious what motivates someont to enter podiatry?? I know you guys probably think many MD fields suck-but for me I just do not see the draw of looking at a persons foot all day-I mean if like the feet you could have done something that had feet in addition to some other stuff tomix it up-just curiosu!

your inquiry is very legitimate and fair. To many outsiders, the concept of "looking at feet" all day does not sound lucrative. However, one major misconception about podiatry is that we "only" look at feet - yes, our clinical scope of practice is governed by the lower extremity - however, our main objective is to ensure that the overall health of the patient is well maintained. Before, my post gets taken out of context - I don't mean that podiatrists will operate beyond the Lower extremity or conduct an EKG on the patient - I do mean that with some systemic diseases like Diabetes which manifest into the lower extremity - the podiatrist gets called upon to ensure that the patient is able to walk without ulcerations - and treat the wounds to ensure no further systemic damage can occur. Another example, would be something like Deep Vein Thrombosis, which should be detected by a clinically sound podiatric physician - but you get the point...

The idea here is that working with the foot and ankle (lower extremity in general) presents many challenges and rewards (patient satisfaction, improvement in patient's way of life). I was fortunate enough to be exposed to this field as a pre-med and it appealed to me after shadowing a decent sum of podiatrists in their private practices and the OR.

I thank you for your inquiry and actually encourage other premeds to shadow and investigate this branch of medicine - it may not appeal to some but at least future practitioners can get a closer look and examine and see what other clinical specialties are available in our health care.

 

[krabmas]

I do not at all mean to be offensive-I am an MD and was just curious what motivates someont to enter podiatry?? I know you guys probably think many MD fields suck-but for me I just do not see the draw of looking at a persons foot all day-I mean if like the feet you could have done something that had feet in addition to some other stuff tomix it up-just curiosu!

I have no particular reason for going into podiatry but after the fact I can tell you what I like about it.

I picked a school where after 4 years I knew I would be going to a podiatric residency program. There would be no "whoops, I ended up a proctologist or OBGYN because I did not get ortho and did not want Imed. It is a sure thing that after pod school I will be a pod.

Things I like about podiatry - I really like biomechanics, and the intricacies of the biomechanics of gait. I can't wait until I have seen so many people walk that I can do an entire gait exam in 20ft as opose to the 100 or so feet it now takes me.

We get at least 4 major(ish) joints to work on and think about how they work in gait and weight bearing. Ortho tends to specialize in 1 joint. (not all but some).

Once you learn the anatomy and function of the foot you can no longer look at it as just a smelly foot even though some really stink. I look at the foot as a bag of bones that sometimes supports 300-500lbs and why these people wonder why their feet hurt.

Feet can be totally messed-up (deformed) yet people still manage to ambulate on them. it is not like kidney failure or liver failure where you need dialysis or donor, with the foot you work with what you got and try to salvage it.

 

[Willcott]

Do you remember the part in Napoleon Dynamite when ND was lying about going wolverine hunting to the cool guys; that is definitely this guy.
Read his other posts: note the frequency of "like" "dude" and "cause."
Apparently he's a psych resident shopping for a corvette who's tired of all the hot "9's and 10's" he's having sex with. Oh, and he was asking what USMLE step scores would be competitive for certain psych residencies. My favorite is his spelling of "sike" (as in, "dude, do you like want the rest of my slurpee....psych). I guess he's got a lot of time to kill as a pgy-1 resident, considering he has posted over 30 times in the one month he's been a SDN member (hmmm). Seriously, what MD psychiatrist do you know that elicits relationship advice on SDN, that is also looking for a place on the internet to rant about celebrity couples. There are too many things missing to make his pitch anything close to plausible.

 

[jonwill]

I do not at all mean to be offensive-I am an MD and was just curious what motivates someont to enter podiatry?? I know you guys probably think many MD fields suck-but for me I just do not see the draw of looking at a persons foot all day-I mean if like the feet you could have done something that had feet in addition to some other stuff tomix it up-just curiosu!

Like every other specialty in medicine, you have to spend all day looking at something. I won't even bother naming all of the specific fields but you get my point. And by comparison to some of them, feet aren't that bad

 

[tea_tu]

I like podiatry because of the large population of diabetic patients. They really show appreciation for the services podiatry offers. Going to a podiatrist is almost like going to the spa. Patients come in, sit back and relax and leave feeling better.