07/02/2025    Rod Tomczak, DPM, MD, EdD

Podiatry Camp, Not Your Band Camp

When I mentioned podiatry camp in my last posting,
I was serious about the concept. I’ve had a few
phone calls from people in the profession who
don’t want to write to PM News but would like to
offer comments. So let’s devote a posting to the
idea of podiatry camp, the why, the what I think
it should be and what it shouldn’t be.

First of all, I want to extend my kudos to
practitioners who want to see the profession
return to full classrooms if we are going to keep
podiatry schools open and grant DPM degrees and
retain the soul of our profession. But, if I’m a
21 year old kid, I don’t want to listen to some
semi-polished well intentioned lunch lecturer who
starts the presentation with, “You know, I have a
couple grandkids your age.” I don’t know if as a
visitor going to an office of a podiatrist who has
socks older than I am is the best way to be
impressed about podiatry. Please, don’t all the
podiatrists my age write in condemning me for
ageism. We are not interested in egos, we’re
trying to save a profession. I’m saying let the
kids talk to someone their age, someone born in
the same century, like students, specifically
third and fourth year students.

Podiatry gets the list of those college students
in the pre-med club and emails them an invitation
to attend two days at one of the podiatry schools
on scholarship. We are recruiting potential
students so the kids pay nothing. We put them up
for a couple nights at the Days Inn Motel in Des
Moines during the non-tourist season. The
recruits, now referred to as “kids, visitors, or
recruits” (students refers to podiatry students)
do not wear interview suits. They wear what the
students wear. They have a big brother or sister
who accompanies each kid around for the next
couple days except when they get dropped off to
sleep.

So on the first night, the kid gets dinner with a
group of students who meet with all the recruits
and their big brother or sister and discuss what
will happen on day 1. We want to stress two
concepts to the recruits…the academics the
podiatry students attend on a daily basis and the
clinical exposure as a teaching experience. The
academic experience should be different from the
type of lecture that the recruit gets enough of at
their college. Let me be clear, the recruit is
going to miss a couple days of classes at their
college. I use the maxim, “Never let school stand
in the way of your education.” If the morning
academic exposure is the lecture model, planners
must be sure the lecturer is one of the best. We
all attended 8:00 am lectures that were a sure
cure for insomnia.

The morning can be basic science lectures or more
clinically focused lectures. For the Avant guard,
contact time would be small group or problem-based
learning experiences. If these small groups are
possible, part of the evening prior to day 1 might
familiarize the recruit(s) with the case so the
recruit is not lost. Some student groups meet for
breakfast to discuss the case before meeting with
the facilitator. When a highly sought after
football player is recruited at Ohio State, the
experience is choreographed down to the minute. We
must make this podiatry recruit feel the same way
without overwhelming him or her. Just be sure the
involvement is meaningful and comfortable for the
visitor. And remember…no interview suits for class
unless you have a dress code like, say, Mayo
Clinic.

When we went to school, the last thing we wanted
was more academics at lunch. Too much can be a
real turn off. Unless podiatry students eat lunch
on a daily basis with the administration, don’t
make it phony. I always wanted to stay below the
radar at lunch. It gets bad when faculty members
have committee meetings at lunchtime. The recruit
has his or her questions and need not be on
intellectual overload.

I am going to describe a clinical teaching
schedule for the afternoon of day 1. Hopefully,
clinic will also be meaningful and busy. In a
private office with a single clinician there might
not be the variety of patients’ pathologies that
may present with more than one podiatrist seeing
patients.

I suggest clinicians view the Kelly Skeff, MD from
Stanford, You Tube Webinar titled “Mastering
Medical Teaching.” There are a number of faculty
development programs from Stanford, but this one-
hour program gives a great introduction into
clinical teaching which can also occur in small
group problem-based learning encounters, in the
clinic or with standardized patients. One of the
basic concepts is that the clinician never answers
a question right off the bat or lectures the
students in the clinic. These unanswered questions
become learning issues for the podiatry students
and the recruit(s) to find themselves. The
clinician might ask why they used a certain
biologic dressing over another. If no one comes up
with the answer, this “learning issue” becomes an
after clinic topic to look up and present the next
day.

It is important to make the recruit feel part of
the group rather than feel like an appendix with
no known function. The clinician doesn’t ask the
recruit a question that may embarrass him or her
but if the clinician is familiar with a student
who is attending Podiatry Camp, a resourceful
podiatrist should be able to make the recruit feel
part of the group. Even asking the recruit if they
have anything to add may make the visitor
comfortable. The last thing the recruit wants to
see is the clinician becoming a pedantic boar and
breaking out in a 10-minute lecture. Clinic is a
kinesthetic-tactile learning experience not a
lecture hall without seats.

There are a couple options after the learning
experience in the clinic. An academic hour or two
researching clinical questions or lecture/problem-
based learning, learning issues might be called
for to prepare for the next day. Students
generally feel stimulated to get the answers to
these learning issues or questions. This type of
learner-based learning puts the student and the
recruit into an intellectual disequilibrium when
they don’t know the answer. They want to rectify
this feeling of unease. They don’t want to remain
hanging. Teachers, on the other hand, want to
impress everyone with how much they know.

I remember at OCPM there was a residency program
at the school. It was amazing how average a
student could be, get a diploma and suddenly was a
resource for every academic question the very next
day in clinic. Was it the extra 18 inches on the
white coat, the diploma itself, the title
“doctor,” or the Holy Spirit that imparted the new
found knowledge? No matter what the reason, the
student and the recruit need to experience active
learning to satisfy the intellectual unease.
The podiatry student has to be sure the post
clinic learning time is not devoted solely to Open
Evidence and Medscape answers.

When we had a problem-based learning curriculum in
year 3 at Des Moines, students would infuriate me
by bringing the Merck Manual to the group
meetings. Looking up recent articles by
podiatrists for podiatric questions reinforces the
fact that podiatrists do publish in referred
journals and that text books are more or less
obsolete before the ink dries.

It might be a diversion from the students’ usual
schedule, but getting together with other students
besides the assigned big brother or sister helps
the recruit realize podiatry students can be
responsible social beings. Supper and conversation
with the learning group gives the recruit a chance
to ask questions outside of the academic walls.
It would be nice if on Day 2 there could be an
exposure to the operating room. The recruit
doesn’t know the difference between a hammertoe
correction and a total ankle replacement. It’s the
whole operating room experience that the recruit
remembers including the work up, pre-op holding
with anesthesia visit, anesthesia, and PACU.

The rest of the day is flexible depending onwhen
the recruit must be back to their daily routine.
Maybe they can stay another night in which case,
they can attend another clinic or group learning
session. Unless they bring it up, recruits don’t
need to be told about residencies, board
certification or setting up practice. All that is
years away and if the two days are planned
correctly, the recruit has just the right amount
of experiences and is just a hair short of sensory
overload.

Of course, it’s a requirement to follow up in a
couple days to see if the recruit has any
questions. There is no need to ask him or her if
we will see them at the end of the summer. If the
school is a risk taker, administration can tell
the student they will get their tuition back if
they want to drop out after the first year because
they are not happy with podiatry. Remember it
costs nothing to have a first year student sit in
a class for a year. Of course there might be some
federal law against that part of the plan.
I think visits to a podiatry office might be
beneficial after the camp, but remember, if
students come to the office, make sure they see
the authentic services podiatrists perform.

The visit is not about the podiatrist, it’s about
the vocation, the calling, the profession. The
fact that we are sometimes recognized by the
public or the Rotarians, or the Eagles means
little if the message that’s conveyed is to gain
laurels from the public. Not everyone can make
orthotics for a high school track team and get
their picture in the suburban paper you can pick
up at Kroger for free, or your MVP (Most Valuable
Podiatrist) GOAT trophy from the NFL. All those
honors may come to a podiatrist or they more
likely may not, so dragging them out in front of a
potential podiatry student sends a precarious
message. Remind that young impressionable mind it
will be years before they reach the pinnacle you
enjoy and it takes work to get there. At 60, do we
need praise from a 20-year-old?

Everyone reading this has some ideas about this
plan, whether it will work or crash, what to add
and what to delete. Let’s not hide the ideas, send
them in to PM News. Hit reply on your email and
keyboard your thoughts. It may be too late for
this year. That’s what happens when we keep things
a secret. Len Levy used to say the Chinese word
for crisis is the same word for opportunity. We
are in an educational crisis and could lose the
DPM degree but more importantly we are losing the
essence of podiatry, one empty classroom seat at a
time.

Rod Tomczak, DPM, MD, EdD, Columbus, OH

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