09/03/2013    Amram Dahukey, DPM

Unmatched Residency Placements Currently Stand at 80

For the past few months, I read so many articles
and letters in regards to the lack of residency
programs for all graduates, some even want to
reduce requirement for licensure so that
graduates can get license without a certified
program. This will only erase all the progress
of our specialty in the last few years.

Mach blame has been placed on various persons
and organizations. I believe that the problem is
going to worsen in the next few years. The
etiology of this problem is clear and facing all
of us. Schools accept number of students without
regards to number of residency programs that
will be available post-graduation. They believe
their responsibility ends with graduation; the
truth is far from it.

Because we require post graduate training we
must ensure that the number of students accepted
be at least the same number of residency
programs upon graduation. This is a business
decision by the schools and must be led by the
association of podiatric medical schools and
CPME.

I do not know the number of students beginning
their education this year, but did anyone bother
to check if the number exceeds the residency
positions that will be available and by how
many? This is called long-term planning and
unless it is done the problem may just get
worse.

For those already graduated and those that will
graduate in the next three years, a concerted
effort must be made to create more positions. It
is not easy, but with appropriate incentives and
assistance to those who work hard at managing
and developing residency program we could
develop more position.

(I have developed and opened two residency
position that began this past July at the
largest hospital in Tucson, AZ)

I am calling for ad hoc committee to propose a
road map for the future of residency program
availability.

Amram Dahukey, DPM, Tucson, AZ
drd@premiersurgeons.com

Other messages in this thread:

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09/03/2013    Ron Raducanu, DPM

Unmatched Residency Placements Currently Stand at 80 (Amram Dahukey, DPM)

I want to take issue with this statement Dr.
Dahukey made. "We" is all of medicine. The
states that require one year of training before
they issue a license is a requirement for ALL
medical professionals. We are not being singled
out, which is a good thing. This is want we
want, but then to not offer a single year
of "internship" or enough residencies for all is
the major problem here.

I don't think anyone wants to "reduce
requirements for licensure" or even suggested
that at all. The goal is that all graduates have
at least one year of training so they can then
get a license to practice. Without any type of
residency, our graduates can't even practice
Podiatry in most states.

There is also a pendulum which swings in the
direction of not enough residencies and too many
residencies. The onus is not just on the
schools. Say the schools only accept the number
of students that there are residencies for. Then
some students leave, for whatever reason,
throughout the four years, which will create a
surplus. This happens in every class. Ask the
schools. They will tell you. Then some students
fail their boards and the surplus numbers
increase.

Now you have programs which can't fill their
positions. This leads to a loss of funding for
those positions eventually. All of sudden (not
so much) the schools are faced with the same
issue they had before. Too many students, not
enough residencies. People (like you, thank you
for your efforts!) create residency positions,
but because of this "crisis", not as many people
chose podiatry or the schools take your advice
and take less students. Back and forth we go.
The pendulum was on too many residency as little
as 7-8 years ago.

I think that simplest and most reasonable
solution is revamp the residencies (again, I
know) and offer one-year residencies but only to
those who don't match. Bingo. Everyone gets a
chance to reenter the matching system if they
want, or be able to practice in any of the 50
states. Wouldn't that be nice?

Ron Raducanu, DPM, Philadelphia, PA,
kidsfeet@gmail.com

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08/06/2013    Unmatched Podiatric Graduate

Unmatched Residency Placements Currently Stand at 80 (Richard Gosnay, DPM)

Dr. Gosnay’s comment that the APMA or CPME are
not to blame for the residency shortage is
absolutely outrageous. The CPME is not just an
accreditation arm of the APMA, its also supposed
to make sure the colleges do not take too many
students. The CPME approved the addition of a
new podiatry college at the same time that it
recognized the likelihood that a residency
shortage was on the horizon.

At the same time as the latest podiatry college
was matriculating its charter class, the CPME
allowed at least one other college to take more
students than they were approved to take.
Dr. Gosnay suggests that unmatched students
should look at why they did not match, as if to
suggest that it was their own shortcoming for
not matching, and not because they were misled
by colleges that never disclosed that there was
a concern that a significant number of graduates
would not get a residency. It's like blaming the
poor woman who gets raped not on the rapist, but
rather on she herself for wearing a short
dress!

I know there were many podiatrists from past
decades who were unable to obtain a residency,
however, they could complete a preceptorship and
get a license and obtain board certification.
The APMA has taken away this pathway while at
the same time doing nothing to ensure that all
qualified graduates are able to get a residency.
This is unconscionable.

The fact that schools do not warn incoming
students that there is a residency crisis most
certainly should be considered a crime. If I
sell my house without informing them that the
roof leaks or the basement floods every spring,
I am legally responsible. Dr. Gastwirth and the
various greedy college deans are no different
than the CEOs from companies like Enron, who
claimed to have had no knowledge of what was
going to happen to investors’ money - they
received life sentences nonetheless. In this
case though, the victims were much more
vulnerable in that the money they invested was
generally borrowed!

Unmatched Podiatric Graduate