Practicing Podiatry After One Year of Resicency

[Frmr FP]

I'm new to the SDN. I formerly went to medical school and decided to to quit my first year of residency in FP to go to podiatry school. I am now at the end of my first year of residency in podiatry. I have found several states (Tennessee, Texas, Pennsylvania, Hawaii, Connecticut, Kentucky, etc) only require a one year residency if any to practice podiatry there. My questions: do these states mean "one year of a one year program" or "one year of a three year program"? will I have a tough time finding a job considering I'm competing with 3 year trained residents? Will it be challenging to find a diabetic foot care position contracting to nursing homes/making house calls, especially underserved areas? Will pursuing the latter make a decent living?

Thanks!

---

Members don't see this ad.

 

[de Ribas]

I'm new to the SDN. I formerly went to medical school and decided to to quit my first year of residency in FP to go to podiatry school. I am now at the end of my first year of residency in podiatry. I have found several states (Tennessee, Texas, Pennsylvania, Hawaii, Connecticut, Kentucky, etc) only require a one year residency if any to practice podiatry there. My questions: do these states mean "one year of a one year program" or "one year of a three year program"? will I have a tough time finding a job considering I'm competing with 3 year trained residents? Will it be challenging to find a diabetic foot care position contracting to nursing homes/making house calls, especially underserved areas? Will pursuing the latter make a decent living?

Thanks!

Were you a DO or an MD ?

 

[hypermobility]

I'm new to the SDN. I formerly went to medical school and decided to to quit my first year of residency in FP to go to podiatry school. I am now at the end of my first year of residency in podiatry. I have found several states (Tennessee, Texas, Pennsylvania, Hawaii, Connecticut, Kentucky, etc) only require a one year residency if any to practice podiatry there. My questions: do these states mean "one year of a one year program" or "one year of a three year program"? will I have a tough time finding a job considering I'm competing with 3 year trained residents? Will it be challenging to find a diabetic foot care position contracting to nursing homes/making house calls, especially underserved areas? Will pursuing the latter make a decent living?

Thanks!

You need to finish a three year program. Either finish the one you are in now, or transfer to another program. You MIGHT be able to practice in those states, but I don't think you'll be able to become board certified. My state allows you to get licensed with completion of a residency program. Why limit the rest of your career for 2 years remaining in residency.

I believe there is a thread about this before, so you might search for it.

 

[hypermobility]

Credentialing without finishing Residency

 

[Frmr FP]

Were you a DO or an MD ?

MD

 

[Frmr FP]

You need to finish a three year program. Either finish the one you are in now, or transfer to another program. You MIGHT be able to practice in those states, but I don't think you'll be able to become board certified. My state allows you to get licensed with completion of a residency program. Why limit the rest of your career for 2 years remaining in residency.

I believe there is a thread about this before, so you might search for it.

Thanks for the link. So what are the consequences of not being board certified if all you want to do is diabetic foot care? Wouldn't Medicaid still reimburse? And again, does "requirement of one year of residency" mean a one year program or does one year of a 3 year program suffice? Provided that diabetic foot care is reimbursed well even without obtaining a full 3 year residency, will this option of practicing only diabetic foot care provide an income of over 100k? Im sure employability will be compromised because I'll be more dispensable, but couldn't I contract to nursing homes/make house calls?

 

[Frmr FP]

Thanks for the link. So what are the consequences of not being board certified if all you want to do is diabetic foot care? Wouldn't Medicaid still reimburse? And again, does "requirement of one year of residency" mean a one year program or does one year of a 3 year program suffice? Provided that diabetic foot care is reimbursed well even without obtaining a full 3 year residency, will this option of practicing only diabetic foot care provide an income of over 100k? Im sure employability will be compromised because I'll be more dispensable, but couldn't I contract to nursing homes/make house calls?

As far as employability goes, there are ortho groups who hire DPM's for DFC and pay well from what I've read in former threads. I'm curious as to specific groups. Even if I do complete a 3 year residency, I still would like to do mainly just DFC.

 

[DexterMorganSK]

I'm new to the SDN. I formerly went to medical school and decided to to quit my first year of residency in FP to go to podiatry school. I am now at the end of my first year of residency in podiatry. I have found several states (Tennessee, Texas, Pennsylvania, Hawaii, Connecticut, Kentucky, etc) only require a one year residency if any to practice podiatry there. My questions: do these states mean "one year of a one year program" or "one year of a three year program"? will I have a tough time finding a job considering I'm competing with 3 year trained residents? Will it be challenging to find a diabetic foot care position contracting to nursing homes/making house calls, especially underserved areas? Will pursuing the latter make a decent living?

Thanks!

Why did you quit an MD residency to pursue Podiatry?

 

[Frmr FP]

Why did you quit an MD residency to pursue Podiatry?

Something terrible happened that caused me to quit residency. But then I got well acquainted with a couple podiatrists and liked their lifestyles better than I thought I'd like mine if I continued to pursue MD. I thought it'd be cool to do surgery and medicine also rather than just medicine. I decided to give podiatry a try, I ended up liking it, so I just stuck it out. However, surgery has become unappealing to me.

Now back to the subject at hand...

 

[hypermobility]

im sure ortho groups will hire someone who quit in the middle of residency with no concerns at all!

 

[Frmr FP]

im sure ortho groups will hire someone who quit in the middle of residency with no concerns at all!

No need for the irritating remarks. Is it technically quitting if I'm completing my first year and we are contracted annually in residency? Seems more like a completion of one year of residency and a decision to not start the second year rather than "quitting". Also who needs 3 years to do DFC? Older podiatrists didn't.

 

[Frmr FP]

im sure ortho groups will hire someone who quit in the middle of residency with no concerns at all!

One more thing: how would one complete the necessary one year of residency for those certain states nowadays when there are no more one year programs? Shouldn't these states might as well say "completion of a 3 year program required" or is completing just one year of a 3 year program (in your mind, "quitting") acceptable, which is one of my original questions yet to be answered?

 

[GreenHousePub]

Bad idea. Finish your residency or just finish any residency. You won't be even eligible to be board qualified by most of our boards. You won't be on insurance panels and no one is going to hire anyone who isn't even board eligible and has been fired by their residency program.

If you don't finish a residency people are going to think you were fired regardless of the circumstances.

edit: for your above question it's from state licensing boards. They will ask you "have you completed at least 2 years (or 1 year depending on the state) of a residency (doesn't matter if you finished)"

Then you will get your state license and immediately start losing money since you won't be able to get a job.


On a side note, you have an MD and did one year of FP residency so you are elgible for your full license. Why don't you look into those "Men's Sexual Health" or "Aesthetic Medicine" clinics? I know a few fired MD residents who opened those and are making bank.

 

[heybrother]

I don't have the answer to your questions. Historic people who did 1 year programs were able to receive certificates indicating 1 year of completion. What will your program provide you? This is something I had discussed with my program director a year or two ago and his comment was that he felt the only thing he could provide was PMSR/RRA or nothing. He could be mistaken. I suspect he'll feel you quit.

Do you really feel there's a career to be had doing HRFC.. for 20-30 years? There's some back and forth on this forum about whether it pays and what not, but its just crawling with regulation. Q modifiers and all that. I personally feel like I've seen too many "everyone must qualify" situations and at some point something has to come down on that. I read a pretty interesting article detailing that nail debridement costs hundreds of millions per year. Its just begging for increased interference and headache for likely decreased reimbursement.

 

[NatCh]

I think you'd be setting yourself up for a LOT of career difficulty by stopping early.

 

[dtrack22]

I think you'd be setting yourself up for a LOT of career difficulty by stopping early.

Career difficulty as a podiatrist yes (in theory). But the MD even without finishing a residency is more valuable than I think a lot of people here realize.

I would look into transferring programs (find a VA program with an opening where it’s a lot of nails and wounds for example) and finishing 3 years before I would consider trying to work after 1 year. In my experience you would be largely unemployable as a DPM (again in theory) if you dont complete a 3 year residency. The fact you have an MD is your only saving grace and if you can get licensed in a particular state as an MD then, honestly, you’d probably be just fine quitting a DPM residency any time you wanted. You don’t need a DPM license to practice podiatry. Any doctor can treat foot conditions and do wound care and bill out for those services. Now I’m not sure how board certification comes into play with MD/residency/insurance panels/reimbursements. But I’d bet a lot of money you don’t run into near the issues as an MD/DO as a DPM who couldn’t get board certified would.

 

[NatCh]

Great points. Having that MD degree is an ace in the hole.