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Just in case it you weren’t aware, I’m going to state the blatantly obvious: podiatry has an advertising problem. When I state this obvious-as-the nose-on my-face (and it is obvious) comment, I’m referring specifically to recruiting our future podiatric physicians.
The Problem
As a faculty member of one of our colleges of podiatric medicine, I’m exposed weekly to new applicants. The one commonality to almost all of our applicants’ stories is how little they knew of podiatry before some almost chance encounter with the profession. Picture yours truly sitting across a table from a young prospective student. The first question I typically ask is, “So, what brought you to podiatric medicine as a career choice?” A portion of the answer typically includes something like, “I didn’t even know about podiatry until….” Why is this?
Why is it so easy for me to go to some recruiting event for my University and be able to truthfully say, “Podiatric medicine is the best kept secret in medicine?” We all know this statement is true. Podiatry is an excellent career that provides a better than comfortable living, reasonable work hours, time for family and personal life, and a varied and interesting work day. What profession allows me the variety to treat ulcers in one room, lower extremity deformities in another, while performing procedures in a third? How many medical specialties allow me to be a dermatologist, rheumatologist, physical therapist, orthopedist, neurologist, vascular specialist, researcher, teacher, and surgeon all at the same time?
Whenever I speak with applicants, they uniformly tell me about the podiatrists they shadow. Universally, they describe how impressed they are about how happy the podiatrist seemed and how deep their relationships were with their patients.
If our profession is so good, then what’s the problem? I’ll answer it in one word: Advertising.
We spend so much time in our little corner of the world treating our patients and living our lives that we don’t spend enough time, energy, and resources in letting the world know how important we are and how fantastic our profession is. The Solution
I stated the problem in one word: Advertising.
I’ll state the solution in one word: You.
You, my fellow podiatric physicians, are the answer. The only way we’re going to improve our lot and stop being the best kept secret in medicine is to get out of our happy little corner and engage in the community around us. It’s not easy. It’ll take you out of your comfort zone. But only you can show our best prospective students why they should be podiatric physicians and not something else. Here are some simple ideas to get involved:
- Take pride in what you do. No, feet are not the most glamorous part of the body. But would you rather be a gastroenterologist sticking your hand up where the sun don’t shine all day long? I think not. However, you do have the opportunity to completely change your patients’ lives in immediate and long term ways. Do your job well, and you’re a rock star to your patients. Just yesterday, I “cured” a patient’s previously debilitating flatfoot pain with bracing (I also diagnosed his lumbosacral radiculopathy) and healed a lady’s heel ulcer (she literally blessed me!). This is why I’m proud of my job.
- Contact ANY of the podiatric medical schools. Ask how you can become involved in the recruiting process.
- Contact your local university premed counselors. Ask to speak with them directly to talk about the profession.
- Speak to your local high school and college student premed clubs.
- Offer to shadow prospective students. In my experience interviewing applicants, this is the single most common way students become interested in our profession.
- Contact the APMA to get involved in student recruiting.
It all boils down to one single factor in changing the current low applicant rates: YOU. No entity, association, or collage is going to make the kind of impact that YOU as an individual enthusiastic podiatrist can make.The more applicants we have, the higher quality our students will be, and the better our future podiatrists will be. The military refers to this idea as a “force multiplier.” You, as one person getting involved, will have a large effect down the line. It just requires you to make a start. I’ll see you at our next recruiting event.
Keep writing in with your thoughts and comments. Better yet, post them in our eTalk forum.
Best wishes.
Jarrod Shapiro, DPM
PRESENT Practice Perfect Editor
[email protected]
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