Working with Kids

[FutureDocHopefl]

hey everyone,

always a pleasure to talk to you all!



i was going to ask this question to the podiatrist i was planning on shadowing this week, but he ended up having to go out of town for the week, so darn!

but anyway, i really enjoy working with the kids, so what kinds of options could i have if i wanted to work exclusively with them? could i specialize in pediatric foot surgery if i wanted to?



thanks again SDN'ers, you guys and gals are always a good resource!

happy st. patty's day!

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[Feli]

You can try to specialize in whatever you wish, but keep in mind that podiatry already is a specialty. Podopeds, pod sports med, pod sx, etc are a sub-specialties. A lot of people fail to realize this concept.

Yes, of course you could try to get solid residency training or maybe even do a fellowship focused in podopeds or podoped surgery, but in reality, you're likely to still see a variety of general pod cases also to fill out your appointment books because there's just not enough podopeds cases in most areas to do that and nothing else. If you got spectacularly good and well known for podopeds work, it might be possible that you'd get a ton of referrals for difficult podopeds cases, but I sure don't think peds is 100% of the practice for very many DPMs - if any. I'm not trying to discourage you, and you should strive to make your practice suited to your strengths and training.

Still, it's important you realize that^. Some pre-pods or even pod students seem to think they're going to see 100% athletic injuries / 100% peds / 100% pod radiology, etc. You can find residencies and fellowships highly focused in certain areas, but you still want to be fairly well rounded to give yourself options. Podiatry is already a specialty.

 

[FutureDocHopefl]

Thanks Feli! I really appreciate you offering your advice, have a good one!