01/07/2014    KSUCPM Graduate

Unmatched Residents, One Possible Solution (Stephen Peslar, BSc, DCh)

After not matching on March 20th, 2013, along with
more than 100 other qualified residency
applicants, I truly believed that the APMA and
CPME, along with the whole of the podiatry
community would come together and deal with this
devastating situation. Other than publish a couple
of letters asking existing programs to increase
their programs by one or two spots, absolutely
nothing has been done.

I have spoken to several very frustrated people
that have shown interest in creating new programs,
but who claim that the CPME is exceedingly
difficult to deal with and have shown no interest
in expediting the process of creating new programs
to help address this residency disaster.

A number of individuals have written several
letters to PM News with various suggestions on how
this situation may be resolved. Others have
suggested a meeting with unmatched graduates, CPME
and APMA executive members and other podiatry
stakeholders. Both the APMA and CPME declined any
such meeting and have disregarded all of the
suggestions made by countless concerned members of
the podiatry field.

This apathetic position by the CPME and APMA is
absolutely astounding, considering they are the
sole reason that this catastrophe has occurred.
Perhaps it isn’t a complete surprise, since they
must be aware that an in-depth examination of the
cause of this residency shortage will point
squarely and solely at them.

Approximately 20 of the 104 unmatched applicants
have obtained a spot – a fact that the CPME and
APMA unabashedly try and take the credit for. The
APMA has conceded that as many as 150 qualified
applicants may not match this year. So, with 20%
more applicants last year than residency spots, it
would be a given that the CPME/APMA would mandate
an immediate and very significant reduction in the
number of students matriculating the following
intake.

Unfortunately, this most basic and reasonable step
was not done. In fact, the college I graduated
from, KSUCPM matriculated 123 students (the
absolute maximum number is 125). This fact speaks
volumes about how the APMA/CPME and colleges
couldn’t possibly care less about anything other
than “money grabbing.” I spoke with a number of
last year’s KSUCPM matriculating class as to
whether they were told about either the 104
qualified applicants that didn’t match last year
or the expected 150 that won’t match this year.
None of those students I spoke with had been told
any of this information, however, each of them
told me that had they known the truth of the
situation, they would not have enrolled in
podiatry college.

Why don’t we toss around a few speculative ideas
about what might happen when 150 applicants don’t
match with a residency. Let’s just say that half
of these grads will ultimately default on the
$250,000 in student loans they possess. Do you
suppose that the federal government will guarantee
future loans of this size when 15% or so of
graduates cannot repay their enormous student
loans?

If future applicants cannot obtain student loans
to study podiatric medicine, there will be no
future for podiatry. With the uncertainty caused
by Obamacare, this scenario certainly doesn’t seem
too difficult to envision.

The sad truth is that the only way this fiasco can
likely be successfully dealt with is through
litigation – something I’m quite sure the colleges
and APMA/CPME would have great difficulty in
defending.

KSUCPM Graduate

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