Podiatrists are medical doctors who specialize in treating foot problems in your lower legs. Since they deal with foot problems, they can diagnose and treat patients suffering from foot complications because of diabetes.
Commonly, they are called a doctor of podiatric medicine, podiatric physician, or simply a podiatrist. Though their curriculum involves human physiology and anatomy, their main specialty is treating lower feet problems.
Let us now know what are the medical conditions treated by a podiatrist.
Sprains and Fractures
Since a podiatric doctor deals with treating foot or ankle problems, therefore they treat common sprains and fractures. They have also a close association with sportspersons since a sportsperson has more chances of injuring their ankle and toes. They also advise their patients to combat these situations along with healing the injury through medical guidance.
Arthritis
Arthritis is a medical condition that arises from swelling, wear, and tear, and inflammation of your joints. The work of a podiatrist involves treating patients through medicines, physical therapy, inserts, or special shoes to counter the problem. The last option to treat arthritis is surgery if all fails.
Heel Pain
Many people complain of heel pain. The common cause of heel pain is calcium buildup, heel spurs in your heel bone. Common treatment procedures include OTC medicines or shoe inserts. If the problems get aggravated, your podiatry doctor might recommend surgery to overcome the problem.
How to get into Podiatry School?
You need to complete your education that consists of 3 years or 90 hours of the undergraduate program for getting entry into a podiatry school as per the American Association of Colleges of Podiatric Medicine, or AACPM.
The mandatory test that is essential to get an entry into a podiatry school is the Medical College Admission Test (MCAT).
Apart from this, you need to showcase your maturity skills before becoming a podiatry doctor. Along with this, you need to have excellent academic records in science for making your application strong.
How many years is Podiatry School?
It takes fours years to complete your education and training in an accredited podiatry school and earn the degree in Doctor of Podiatric Medicine.
Additionally, many schools also require the applicants to gain some working experience in the field of podiatry by working in an approved health care facility and acquire the license. A license in podiatry medicine would allow you to work and practice independently.
Although, the duration of working experience might vary from state to state. You need to invest three years for becoming a residence surgeon. Hence, it would take seven years to become a complete podiatrist.
In the US, you need to pass few more exams along with the licensing exams to become a licensed podiatrist. Apart from the national exam, you might have to take up mandatory state exams in your state where you are thinking of practice.
Although you can be allowed to practice podiatry without having to attend the residency course that lasts 3 years, most of the aspiring students invest their 3 years to obtain the podiatry residency training.
To boost your credentials, you can attain board certification from the American Board of Foot and Ankle Surgery, the American Board of Multiple Specialities in Podiatry, or the American Board of Podiatric Medicine.
How hard is Podiatry School?
Like every medical study, it is difficult to study in a podiatry school. The study curriculum is similar to osteopathic and allopathic medical schools. You need to invest four years to complete a degree in podiatry and it is exactly the same as conventional medical schools.
In a podiatry class, the student’s needs to take up science class that includes subjects like pathology, anatomy, clinical portion, care, and diagnosis. The entire study curriculum is the same as their peers in conventional medical schools.
However, the key difference between a conventional school and a podiatry school is that a podiatry school focuses entirely on the lower legs, feet, ankle, etc. Whereas, a conventional medical school involves the entire body.
Podiatry schools also focus on the treatment of the lower foot and ankle from the second year of the curriculum. The course duration in a podiatry school takes seven years to complete overall. This will help you to obtain a license to start your practice.
The podiatry classes also entail students to take up organic chemistry classes for 7 hours a day for 5 days a week. Imagine this for 2 years continuously. The second-year also needs you to engage in strenuous clinic visits and seeing your patients.
After this, you need three more years to practice residency that takes almost 60 hours per week in tough conditions with immense pressure.
You will hardly get to sleep or relaxation time. Additionally, you will be in continuous exposure to various diseases and infections such as COVID-19, and many more.
Although it looks like a difficult path to explore, surely you will enjoy than most of the other jobs.