Finding Your Niche As You Begin Your Podiatry Career

From what seems like the time that we first began to speak, many of us have been asked, “What do you want to be when you grow up?”    The sky seems like the limit as a child and many children come up with more creative answers such as “I want to be an astronaut.” This answer frequently changes during the adolescent years when one commonly goes through a period of “finding” oneself. Often, teenagers may respond that they do not know what they want to pursue as a future career. They may make frequent visits to guidance counselors and career advisors. Additionally, schools may instruct students to take tests such as the Armed Services Vocational Aptitude Battery (ASVAB) or even personality questionnaires in order to determine what type of job best suits their skill sets.    Eventually, you have to make a decision regarding how you are going to make a living and be a contributing member of society. With the recent economic stresses coupled with the rising cost of education, it may be beneficial to commit to training for a specific career early in life. There is a huge variety of career fields from which to choose. Accordingly, one should avoid tunnel vision and explore the possibilities of other disciplines. A deep analysis is important when deciding what career to pursue, especially considering the time and financial commitments involved in learning “what you want to be when you grow up.”    There are subsets of what you can do in most career fields. It is important to explore the many options that are available. Healthcare is particularly unique because there are a lot of different functions that a person in the field can perform and podiatry is no different.    Throughout podiatric medical school, students decide what subjects they like the most. Even in residency, after reading endless journal articles, you are eventually able to discover which topics are of most interest or if you are even the least bit interested in research or academics. At the conclusion of residency, you should have a good idea of what etiologies you find most interesting and the patient population that you prefer to treat. You can only make that conclusion by exposing yourself to as many different cases as possible. You never know what your initial job out of residency will entail. Your first job out in the “real world” may or may not reflect your dream practice, but you are always able to independently pursue the topics that you find interesting.    As the saying goes, “wisdom is knowledge plus experience.” This saying definitely is true for podiatry. Podiatry school and the current residency structure are set up to provide the novel podiatrist with immense knowledge. Even the recent lengthening of all podiatry residency programs reflects the importance of time coupled with experience. Podiatrists of the past have gone through pain and strife to gain parity, and the respect of other medical professionals.    It is important to realize early in our education that we have the training to be a foot and ankle specialist, which in the medical profession is synonymous with being an expert. Some may argue that with the emphasis on multidisciplinary education and medical rotations as a student and a resident, we are losing some aspects of the art of podiatry and chiropody. This is true but without interaction with other specialists, our practice sphere will continue to be limited.    Podiatry continues to evolve. Working with younger podiatrists may be both rewarding and enlightening. For some, being educators and mentors is their strongest skill set as a podiatrist. Others are great orators and some have excellent business sense and practice management skills. There are also those who are great surgeons and innovators. If things get redundant, keep in mind that you can always alter your concentration to pursue another arena of podiatric medicine. For your own well-being and the care of the patients with whom you interact, it is important to continue to be energized.    The road to being a physician is a long one and periods of fatigue may occur. It is important to maximize your potential and make the biggest contribution to the field as you see fit. You can accomplish this through many different avenues but you must find your own road. With the uncertainty of today’s economy and the ever-changing medical legislation, it is important to find your passion within podiatry. Without doing so, podiatry will feel like just another job.    Dr. Ryans is completing her third year of residency at SSM DePaul Health Center in St. Louis.    Dr. McCord retired from practice in 2008 at the Centralia Medical Center in Centralia, Wash.