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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