The NBPME Board recently announced that they would continue administering the CSPE this year, with a delay and the option to take it in residency. This is upsetting, to put it lightly. In the midst of a global pandemic, the board is ordained to have the safety of the students over which it resides as its most fundamental priority. Choosing to continue as planned with the administration of the examination in a centralized location which currently ranks in the top 10 in terms of COVID-19 cases and deaths does not align with this priority. The board has made it clear to the students that our health, safety, and well-being is undervalued to that of the completion of this examination. This is well supported by the decision to force students into traveling thousands of miles by plane, establishing lodging in susceptible areas such as hotels and Airbnb’s, and securing rental cars. The three previously mentioned activities are extremely risky and are viable methods to which COVID-19 can be contracted and spread.  This petition hopes to further explain why the decision to delay the exam as opposed to the indefinite cancellation of it is extremely irresponsible and neglectful.

While the NBPME has responded by moving the window this year, and allowing students to take the examination during residency, this response is insufficient, irresponsible and fails to acknowledge most of our concerns. By still allowing the examination to take place this year, students are left with one of two options: risking possible contraction of the disease while interrupting their already limited clerkships scheduled between October and January, or losing out on valuable training during their residency. Students should not be faced with this unnecessary and stressful choice while worrying about everything else.

For students who do opt to take the examination in residency, it would be a moot point. The APMLE site describes the CSPE as an exam that “assesses proficiency in podiatric clinical tasks needed to enter residency.” Key words are entering residency - why schedule an exam meant to consider you for residency, when the scores won’t even be reported for MATCH and you have the option of taking it after completing two years of residency? Their new argument is that it is necessary for licensure and the “significance of this aspect of testing to satisfactory performance of licensees”. This doesn't make any sense. Only two years of current attendings (Class of 2015 and Class of 2017, which just graduated residency in May) have taken this test. So where are these statistics coming from? In fact, a vast majority of practicing podiatrists, including the entirety of the physicians on the NBPME board, have never sat for this exam. Are they insinuating that they themselves, and all of their predecessors, lack the essential skills, have had an increased rate of unsatisfactory performance, or are more likely to face disciplinary issues?

The NBPME cancelled the examination for the Class of 2016 due to logistical issues, without finding loopholes to make students take it at some other point. Almost every major organization in the podiatric educational arena has agreed that they should follow their own precedent and do the same for the Class of 2021, including the APMA and all of our deans. Their failure to do this is completely irresponsible, and begs us to question how they decided it. It seems as though financial obligations with the NBOME, or the amount of money they would personally lose as an organization, is the driving factor behind this. If it’s student tuition and examination money that keeps them afloat, it should be the students they listen to!

Forcing us students to risk our own health, the health of our loved ones, and further escalate the possible transmission and contraction rate of the global pandemic to complete an examination that has no significance whatsoever for our residency match is providing benefit to neither the profession nor students. The job of the NBPME is to #ProtectOurStudents, and we will settle for nothing less.

We, the undersigned, formally request the NBPME cancel the APMLE Part 2 CSPE for the Podiatric Medicine Class of 2021, work to remove it as a requirement for licensing in all states, and refund students who have already reserved spots.