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Hello I am a concerned 4th year podiatry student and wanted to receive the honest opinions of podiatrists who are in currently in practice. Now is the time for me to interview with several residency programs and I am trying to decide if I should complete a PM&S 24 or PM&S 36 program. For those of you who are unfamiliar with these terms a PM&S programs offers one year of primary podiatric medicine and one year of forefoot surgical training; while a PM&S 36 program offers one year of primary podiatric medicine and two years of both forefoot and rearfoot surgery. My dilemna is that my career goals are to become board certified in forefoot surgery by the ABPS and to be well trained in wound care. I plan to either join a podiatry group, buy in to a practice, or join a multispecialty group in the state of Florida where the scope of practice is up to to the tibial tuberosity. I am in my late 20s and would like to start a family in approximately 3 years (after my residency training). All of these goals could possibly be achieved with a PM&S 24. I have been approached by a PM&S 24 program that is very interested in me and admittedly only focuses on forefoot surgery. All of the DPMS are board certified in forefoot surgery. It is located in the city I would like to practice, but I wonder if I would miss the rearfoot training down the road. I have heard that there are some rearfoot surgery fellowships, but they are few and far in between. If there is anyone out there that could offer me some good sound advice...I am all ears! Thank you

Do it all. If you settle for less there will come a time when you will kick yourself.!

This is a fairly easy question to answer. If you want to do rearfoot and ankle surgery as a podiatrist, then make sure that you get a residency program that will train you in these procedures because it is very difficult to get this type of training while in private practice. However, many podiatrists are very happy and very content in just doing forefoot surgery and less complicated rearfoot cases, like I do.

For the past 17 years, I have helped train all the 3rd year residents at Kaiser Sacramento in biomechanics and sports medicine in my private practice. Whereever these gifted residents practice, they will be the top foot and ankle surgeons in their area. However, this does not necessarily mean that they will be happy and content. This sense of well-being, that most of us spend a lifetime trying to acquire and optimize, arises from many other diverse sources, other than whether we are able to perform ankle fracture or triple arthrodesis procedures in our practices.

Good luck in you future training.

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Sincerely,

Kevin

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Kevin A. Kirby, DPM
Adjunct Associate Professor
Department of Applied Biomechanics
California School of Podiatric Medicine at Samuel Merritt College

e-mail: kevinakirby@comcast.net

Private Practice:
107 Scripps Drive, Suite 200
Sacramento, CA 95825 USA
My location

Voice: (916) 925-8111 Fax: (916) 925-8136
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A similar question with more answers was asked over at the Student Doctor Network

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