Becoming a podiatrist requires an undergraduate degree, high GPA, MCAT, and admission to a podiatric medicine school. After four years of schooling, passing national and state exams, and completing a residency, a podiatrist can begin practicing in private or with a medical facility.
Most people don’t think much about their foot until they have a foot injury. They don’t realize that it contains a quarter of all the bones in the human body and 33 different joints. It is an extremely complicated device, and only a podiatrist is fully qualified to facilitate repairs. The podiatrist is a respected member of the medical community, and earning a DPM degree is a time-consuming process.
The usual path to becoming a podiatrist begins with earning an undergraduate degree and maintaining a high grade point average. A student must have at least 90 semester credit hours in college. Minimum standards require at least eight hours of class and lab work in separate courses in Biology, Organic Chemistry, Inorganic Chemistry, Physics, and English
After that, one will take the Medical College Admission Test (MCAT) and apply for admission to the American Association of Colleges of Service Application of Podiatric Medicine (AACPMAS). AACPMAS handles admissions for the eight colleges of podiatric medicine located across the United States and serves as the liaison for 200 teaching hospitals. The prospective podiatrist will receive individual requests from each college and begin the process of submitting transcripts, going through in-person interviews and reviews, seeking financial aid if needed, and visiting the various campuses and facilities.
If accepted to one of these colleges, you will spend at least four years in a medical podology school, taking basic courses in areas such as anatomy, pathology and pharmacology. As the student’s schooling progresses, they attend classes in surgery, sports medicine, orthopedics, biomechanics, radiography and many other related fields. Several labs, seminars, and hands-on rotations are also required. This can include areas and specialties such as general health care, geriatrics and diabetes.
Upon graduating from podiatry school, you will have the DPM diploma. However, training and testing is only partially completed. At that point, the DPM will be required to pass national and state exams and spend several years of postgraduate residency at a hospital or health care facility affiliated with an approved university. Generally speaking, someone will spend a minimum of ten years pursuing their PMS, culminating in certification by the American Board of Podiatric Surgery.
Finally, the long years of training will start to pay off, and the podiatrist will be able to hang his shingle. Many podiatrists go into private practice or join a medical clinic. However, there are numerous options, since a board-certified podiatrist is often in high demand by hospitals, health management organizations (HMOs) and other managed care facilities.
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