Chino Hills Podiatrist-What it takes to become one
May 27, 2009 by: ToddieMPatients and friends are often asking me, what does it take to become a podiatrist? As a practicing podiatrist in the Chino and Chino Hills area for many years, I can’t tell you how many times I have been asked that question.
The corollary to that question is always, “why did you want to become a podiatrist”? I dont know why-but some people just consider working with feet distasteful for some reason. My answer to that has always been, “do you know what a proctologist is”?; and if they do, that always ends the questioning.
To become a licensed podiatrist in the state of California, you need to complete four years of podiatry school, complete an approved residency, and pass an oral boards showing your competency to the state board.
We are fully licensed to write prescriptions, admit patients to the hospital, perform surgery in hospitals of our choice, and do pretty much whatever an MD can do. Our major restriction of course is that our treatment is limited to maladies of the foot and ankle.
In California, you need to have a special ankle certificate to be licensed in that area. I have that certification.
There has been talk over the past five to ten years of incorporating the MD degree along with what we currently have (a DPM degree). Whether this ever comes to fruition is anybody’s guess.
For now, we’ll suffer along with the Jerry Seinfeld jokes, but we’ll know that when it comes to the foot; we are the specialists.
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July 1st, 2009 at 9:59 pm
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August 4th, 2009 at 3:00 pm
Hi, I have a related question that I haven’t been able to find an answer to online and I’m hoping you can enlighten me when you have time. What I’m wondering about is the history of podiatry. How and why did it emerge as a separate (or subset) field of medicine? Why are podiatrists given a DPM instead of an MD (or DO) degree? Why do we not have similar degrees for other parts of the body? (I know all about specialties within medicine, but I’m curious why podiatry has a different degree and special schools.) It seems like podiatry is a bit like dentistry or optometry in that there are special schools and unique degrees that are awarded, and I’m wondering how/why, for instance, there isn’t a special school and degree for, say, hands.
Thank you.