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I've heard alot of different views on the field..SOme people say that the market is full of podiatrists and there are no jobs for new graduates.others say that older podiatrists will retire and there will be room for new podiatrists. What's the deal...

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The deal? Hilarious you should read Dante and consider the circles of hell.

Older podiatrists don't retire they fade away and maybe try to sell a worthless practice and linger around like a stale fart on a crowded elevator on the way down only the elevator ain't so crowded and the cable is worn pretty thin.

Jobs? You need to wake up and read some want ads. Podiatry is a self serving do it yourself good old American hang out a shingle field.

There are no jobs outside of podiatry -sure there is the exception where a DPM goes into the corporate executive world - but not many more than you can count on your hand.

Go on check it out. Ask the right questions. What is the DPM as an independent credential worth outside of fancy footwork -footwork that usually goes elswhere. Despite the admonitions of my colleagus and classmates thrity years ago PODIATRY is still not recognized as anything more than an allied health field. Put the letters DPM on a resume and you'll get a big question mark with it from human resources.

What's the deal? Well that is a timely question as it has always been.

Not unlike poker where you might play Texas hold em or maybe deuce's wild or more appropriate -suicide king's wild.
This is the deal: Podiatry is a field which has been in existence for many years and has mophed mutated and crawled accross the US in so many different scopes of practice specialty boards and continuing confusion that a DPM degree is more in line with what we have in the auto industry excepting the fact that there will be -or its unlikely- a bailout structured for all the podiatrists who took a bite of the propaganda and settled on in believing that someday they would live the dream and have a wonderful professional life (nobody had a wonderful professional life but DPMs have an inbred handicap).

There are reasons to explore the possibility that an offshore MD school might be the ticket because you will get an MD degree and your license will allow you to do everything a DPM can do and you will not be subject to the absurdities of podiatry. Consider this: In some states you can only work up to the ankle-as in the Texas hold em-so if you have a patient with ankle problems and you've spent three years post DPM residency you have to refer out.

Some day after you have gotten your DPM - if you go that route - you will wonder what those three letters mean. Especially when the lady at the check-out counter asks when you use a charge card (most podiatrists still have credit as of today in the US but no, for long) and you say what it is. Maybe you think you'll get a patient ....NO. The clerk's ins. co already saw her GP or Internist or orthopod.

It is a market that is currently recession driven. I've heard of some podiatrists retiring early because of the recession, and others reconsidering retirement for the same reason. Any way you look at it, podiatry is more of a luxury than say, a necessary operation to repair a heart or brain and the economy will likely drive business down by 20% over the course of this coming year. Yes, I'm being optimistic, but my company will likely grow substantially over this same year for the very same reason. Low overhead, low production costs, and a product that markets itself and is easily affordable by even the newest of practices. I'd suggest spending extra time and with your patients during this economy, letting them know by action you care about their health and well being. A patient is more likely going to look to their friends for advice about a foot problem rather than a magazine dedicated to podiatry, although it sounds nice and all, being prominently listed somewhere. As a rule of thumb, a happy patient will probably net you 3 more, whereas an unhappy patient will cost you more than you made.