Just curious, what was tuition when you graduated? Did you have many classmates with over 300k in student loans? I know a bunch, it's pretty common now. I don't think there are many that would disagree that the work can be satisfying, but simply that it is a poor return on investment.
I honestly don’t remember the tuition costs at that time. I came out with 200,000 in debt which included 30,000 from private school undergrad. I had a colleague who stated her debt was over 350,000 after she spent five years at case western reserve prior to pod school. My residency stipend was 27,000 for three years. I did a PPMR, a PMSR 12 and a fellowship. At that time 20 years ago it seemed starting salaries were around 70,000 but mine was much more than that with the VA. It’s all relative since both stipends and salaries are more than double or triple those amounts these days. Tuition has not doubled or tripled. My loans were paid off effective 2017- the loan repayment program started 2007. I had no problem being the primary breadwinner for the family and paying for the student loans and a house and everything else. Honestly, there’s nothing special about me either. I am a run-of-the-mill non-RRA, podiatrist. I was neither the top of the class, nor an aggressive overachiever, being largely unaware of everything Podiatry. I’m joyfully average with the exception of graduating with honors undergrad, and I think people on here who advise low GPA, low MCAT scoring candidates are spot on with respect to the fact that if they’re having a difficult time in undergrad, medical school is going to crush them. I do disagree with the advice that I’ve seen about steering low performing candidates towards nursing because I’ve seen some of the challenges, nurses face, and they need the most advanced candidates they can find as well.
I wonder why I got looks from anesthesia when i said the gas gangrene in the toe needed to go bc i was taught in dpm school it's a surgical emergency. I showed them the PI manual and said the aortic dissection can wait til after. #savingdiabeticlives
again, it’s all relative and that’s a little ignorant. I had a single anesthesiologist over the last 20 years once tell me that nobody ever died from a foot infection. He was terminated because he was toxic, ignorant, demeaning, and egotistical. If we could get rid of egos, and just focus on patient care, and what our profession succeeds at, the discourse could be a lot more pleasant. Reality sucks in many areas of employment. These days the medical profession is no exception. Take the medical school graduate who wants to be an orthopedic surgeon and ends up as an internist making less than me but with the same student loan debt.
“Lucrative” isn’t a word that many (any?) MD/DOs would use to describe their pay and career as a VA provider. Which is what most of us are saying. It is sad that a Podiatrist would call $160-220k “lucrative.” Especially if you are saving lives at 2am in an OR. Gen surg, and Ortho, and Urology, and Vascular would be incredibly disappointed with VA compensation. But in our profession it is BETTER than the average job. It’s not something most of us would be bragging about to prospective students. I get that you love the work, have had easy hours, enjoyable lifestyle. But lucrative?
Did you have a podiatrist rescind your job offer after having a contract, 2 months before graduating residency? Have you ever worked for a podiatrist that stole from you? Have you had any of your Podiatry bosses change surgical hardware for your cases behind your back? All because it was hardware in an MSO and she made profit if you used it? Have you had to spend months cutting toenails in a nursing home because there aren’t even real locums jobs available when you were between jobs? Have you spent an entire year working as an attending only to be paid less than a Physician Assistant?
I have. And I guarantee there are more people with experiences similar to mine (aka associates in podiatry groups) than there are VA podiatrists. So the pessimism (at least) is earned and not surprising when you consider a large minority (if not a majority) of young podiatrists have experienced some variation of the above issues. Our clown show “leadership” has earned the sarcasm.
Again, he has been one of the most podiatry positive posters in this board. The ABPM was the first board to encourage members to create SDN accounts to combat all of us naysayers. If he “stirred the pot” it was because he was arguing FOR more schools, more graduates, more positive professional outlooks, etc. To claim otherwise is just factually incorrect.
I guess he could have multiple accounts, but it would be A) difficult to get away with if you actually reported suspected duplicate accounts to moderators and B) very few people on here are actually anonymous. It doesn’t take many posts that contain tiny bits of personal information to figure out who somebody is. I’ve never once met or spoken privately with half of the posters here but I could tell you exactly who they are.
Mods can see your IP address and I’ve even heard of folks having issues getting around bans with VPNs (though that could just be a cookie/cache thing). I don’t think duplicate accounts are anywhere near as prevalent as you seem to believe.
the salaries you quote are current starting salaries for podiatrists- including new grads. Salaries in the VA have shot up over the last few years. From hourly to admin to nursing to physicians salaries are within 5% of private practice and set to increase more. Then add in bonuses.
No, I never experienced any of what you shared. These nitemare stories are true for many professions. Business partners can suck. It is not the sole narrative.
I’ve been at the table with some pretty amazing organizations with leaders who are immensely dedicated and hardworking.
www.surveymonkey.com
