However this is in Ireland and I think there are more opportunities in England. I do some private work but I could do more if I focused on it. II would aim to get into the NHS for the wider variety of patients you will see.
In my private work I am generally just cutting toenails and hard skin. Easy money but notvery exciting. Of course I do a lot of this as a band 5 pod too in nhs, some weeks I wish I had of chose a different degree, other weeks I'm really happy that I have a permanent job with the great option of additional private work.
NHS is good for your pension and you will learn loads and have colleagues etc, but the constant emphasis on budget cuts and litigation threat gets annoying. Pod-BD , Oct 10, Hi saw this post and went through the same questions myself before applying and during my time as a student.
I have been qualified about 2 and a half years now and love my career, about half the people who qualified in my year work in the nhs and the rest in private practice. I went straight in to the nhs and now work as a band 6 part time and part time private practice.
Like any profession you get what you put in to it, the ones who have done really well from my year are those that sought out extra placements during their holidays and studied as much as possible. Hi I've been away from the forum for a while and have just come by this thread Now that I look back on thirty something years in the profession both NHS 5 years and private 27 years the question I could ask is would I change anything if I could. I'm quite supprised to find that on the whole the answer is "no".
It is true that the case load sometimes has less glamour than say being the hero in an acute trauma as depicted by those wonderful people on TV. But I get regular appreciation from those I treat. A word of caution:empathy: in the NHS other people deal with much of the background work, in private practice it is very different: RTI for HMRC, sickness benefit for PAYE staff, general emloyment law, the rules governing fire safety, electrical safety and inspection, mininum professional standards, CPD The list does rather go on.
The point being a work life balance must be maitained or you will either be sick or broke! So I've enjoyed my career and really wouldn't have changed anything significant, I plan to keep going while I'm still having fun.
Thank you Ben and Horseman for your comments. Is this because the NHS offers mainly part-time work, or that it is more financially viable to do this? Could you tell me more about your private work there seems to be very limited info on this on the internet - do you do home visits, work from a practice that you own or are you a associate of a practice. I've seen a lot of shuropody placements - podiatrists here seem to earn? Are we recommended to stay away from this company? A work-life balance is definitely a good thing so i'm glad you've found the right balance.
Do you run your own practice? Is it financially rewarding? From speaking to my parents and other professionals, the idea i've had would be to try and gain NHS employment once graduated and supplement this with creating a patient list by doing private work in the evenings.
Hopefully with the aim of increasing a patient list whichi will then enable me to work a few days a week privately, so a bit similar to what Ben is doing i think? Would this be a solid way to go about it? I will be loooking at doing a postgrad but I have no idea which way to go down, i'm sure that'll be figured about once i'm on the course or in employment.
Thank you for your replies once again - the more i hear the more i want to get started now! Pod-BD , Oct 12, Pod BD. I am clinic based and pay a percentage of my earnings to the owner of the practice another pod , in return they provide everything I will need.
I would strongly recommend spending time with a few pods in both nhs and private practice to gain a better understanding of the job as it's a big commitment, but a wonderful career. Thanks for your replies guys. If anyone else has anything to offer regarding their experiences, please feel free to post.
Pod-BD , Oct 30, You must log in or sign up to reply here. Show Ignored Content. Similar Threads - Podiatry career option. Podiatry as a career in the UK - what attracts Generation Z? NewsBot , Apr 18, , in forum: United Kingdom. Replies: 0 Views: 1, NewsBot Apr 18, Is Podiatry a career for life?
MisterCrossroads , Mar 19, , in forum: Employment in Australia. This may include working for an existing private podiatry clinic, working in a GP surgery, making home visits or doing locum work. In order to register you'll need to complete an HCPC-approved undergraduate or postgraduate pre-registration podiatry degree.
Undergraduate degree programmes usually last three years four in Scotland. If you already have a degree in a healthcare or science-related subject such as biology, physiotherapy, occupational therapy or sports science, you could apply for an HCPC-approved pre-registration Masters degree.
Entry requirements vary between courses, so contact course providers for details. Courses are a combination of theory and practice and will include around 1, hours of clinical work with patients. It's also possible to take a degree apprenticeship in podiatry. Degree apprenticeships combine a paid apprentice job with study at degree level. On successful completion of an approved programme, you can apply for registration with the HCPC.
You will then be able to practise under the protected title of podiatrist. Entry without a degree is only possible at podiatry assistant level, working under the supervision of a registered podiatrist.
It may be possible with experience to train to become a podiatrist on one of the HCPC-approved courses. You don't have to pay it back and are still able to access funding for tuition and maintenance loans from the Student Loans Company.
For more information, see Health Careers. You'll usually need an understanding of the role of a podiatrist to get a place on a course. You can gain this through work shadowing a registered podiatrist to find out more about the job first-hand. Contact your local clinics or private practices to ask about opportunities. Experience of working in a health-related or caring role is also helpful as are roles that bring you into contact with people.
Membership provides access to journals, papers and news articles as well as discounted entrance to their annual conference. Find out more about the different kinds of work experience and internships that are available. You're likely to gain your first position and initial experience in the NHS working in a hospital department or clinic, health centre or GP surgery.
Outside of the NHS, expansion of the private sector means that you could also work within:. With experience, you may decide to set up your own private practice. It's also possible to go into research or teaching where you could be employed by universities, hospitals and clinics. Specialist recruitment agencies such as Maxxima also advertise vacancies. A requirement of maintaining your registration with the HCPC is to carry out continuing professional development CPD over a two-year period. You'll need to prove you have kept your skills and knowledge up to date and will have to accurately record any CPD activities that you carry out.
Membership of relevant professional bodies provides access to a range of CPD opportunities. These can include regional and national training events, courses, seminars and conferences where you can network and share ideas with other podiatrists. They also provide other services including insurance and member welfare. Relevant bodies include:. For a list of courses see the HCPC list of approved programmes.
Equally, college participants reported their careers awareness to date had been heavily influenced by both social and popular media. This was particularly apparent where there was content that provided details regarding the role of different health professions.
The lack of exposure of podiatry on popular media was a particular frustration shared by many University participants. The lack of exposure for podiatry was felt to be particularly true in social media, the feelings across focus groups were exemplified up by one participant:.
Moreover, the perceived attention better known professions received was a source of some frustration and led to animated conversations, particularly between University participants:. When selecting career options, participants were keenly aware of the issue of timing associated with promoting awareness of health careers — especially for smaller health professions that were less well understood.
A split in opinion was noted with some suggesting they were asked to choose careers options when they were too young to make an informed choice. Others, especially College participants, felt they were simply not asked about careers choices early enough. The theme of accessibility emerged from deeper considerations around awareness of podiatry and what a career in podiatry might offer. Exposure to podiatry as a profession often came late, sometimes after participants had already chosen an alternative, more popular path, such as those identified in table two.
Consequently, podiatry was often seen as a second option or even as a last resort. Equally, there was a perception from several University participants that podiatry was an easier, more accessible programme to enter than more popular courses, in part because of the lack of awareness outlined previously. It became clear that university participants could see a range of opportunities offered by a podiatry career and their aspirations were typically shared by college participants: even if the latter were less clear about what the podiatry profession might be able to offer in terms of career development.
The concept of a flexible career that allowed participants to access their lifestyle choices rather than driving their lifestyle was popular:. Participants were particularly attracted by being able to access control over aspects of their lifestyle that included flexible hours, something allied health careers often offer, whilst enabling the highest quality care:.
With greater insight into the podiatry profession either as part of a taster day or studying on a podiatry course , all participants could see allied health careers as attractive, but for different reasons. For those already at University the wide scope of practice and clear relationship with other professions related to health medicine, surgery and biomechanics was a key determinant.
These links appeared to make podiatry even more popular than their initial thoughts around alternative career choices:. Even without such an in-depth knowledge of the subject, those at College were attracted to aspects of the podiatry profession that hitherto had been poorly recognised:.
People with eating problems have feet problems so it links quite well. Participants from each focus group were in general agreement that their ideal career needed to be able to offer good prospects post-qualification.
Those at University were quick to recognise the shortage of podiatrists and valued the opportunities this might offer them. In addition, the range of opportunities for career progression, the perceived speed of promotion was also reported to be a key advantage by those already attending University.
It should be noted however, that it was still important to participants that the individual practitioner remained in control of their own development:. In parallel with being having good job prospects, there was a sense of being successful and the suggestion that podiatry was seen by some as a potentially lucrative career.
For University participants the salary had been identified and was understood prior to their course commencing. Rather than solely focus on financial remuneration and career status, many participants were more mindful of the breadth of practice a podiatry career might offer them. In particular the links to medicine and surgery, even if tied to the need for extensive further study, was an area University participants returned to, particularly where is set them apart as podiatrists from other professions:.
Taken together, the wide scope of practice associated with podiatry, together with a perceived ability to navigate through the career structure in a flexible manner linking with other specialisms gave participants a sense of responsibility which came hand-in-hand with the strong ethos of caring exhibited throughout the focus groups.
University participants were quick to identify how important this aspect of the podiatry profession was to them:. For some participants, the opportunity to build professional relationships with their patients over a period of time was a unique aspect to podiatry and offered an opportunity to set podiatry apart from other healthcare careers:. The sense of helping people was equally attractive to college participants, who, even if they were not as aware of the breadth and scope of podiatry practice in the same way as University participants, did identify with a need for, and importance of, a caring profession:.
The practical nature of podiatry aligned closely with the idea of actively helping people was particularly attractive to many college participants.
To the best of our knowledge this is the first work to explore what Generation Z students feel about, and want from, the profession of podiatry. Our results brought into sharp focus the number of participants who were largely unaware of podiatry as a profession, whether they were thinking about their career options, or for those studying podiatry and reflecting on their journey to their career choice.
It is perhaps not surprising therefore that applications to podiatry courses have been gradually falling, the loss of the NHS bursary in simply accelerating this pattern. Podiatry courses across the south of England have seen a greater decline in student numbers [ 27 ], leading to widespread fears about course viability. At the time of writing there were public sector vacancies for podiatrists across the UK [ 28 ]. The shortage of podiatrists and overall lack of understanding of the profession has also become part of a more national conversation as reflected in national newspaper reports [ 29 , 30 ].
The lack of understanding about the podiatry profession seems to be underpinned by a complex interrelated set of beliefs. Our participants noted a lack of positive role modelling in both popular and social media outlets, which was often in contrast to that of many other professions who benefit from more positive depictions on traditional media outlets via a plethora of programmes both documentary and dramatic.
The impact of such demonstrations should not be underestimated. The lack of positive role models in podiatry appeared to be compounded by a worryingly limited view of the scope of practice of the profession as outlined by some on-line sources, including Higher Education Institutions offering podiatry courses.
The experiences of Allied Health Professions evidenced in recent publications [ 32 , 33 , 34 , 35 ] are key to positive role modelling within the profession and need to be disseminated more widely. The work of health professionals is currently held in high esteem by the public and reportedly led to a surge in applications to healthcare courses [ 36 , 37 , 38 ]. Such experiences also fit the broader concept of role modelling where positive role models in healthcare have been seen as important to the professional development of both undergraduate and junior clinicians [ 39 , 40 ].
Positive role modelling has been successfully used in the Higher Education setting; for example, student ambassadors at University outreach events.
Prospective students, particularly from under-represented groups, are more likely to identify with positive role models, which in turn increases their understanding of higher education study, student life and helps support their decision making.
Positive role modelling could be particularly important for widening participation candidates who encounter a range of barriers to participating in Higher Education including financial limitations, transport, diversity and assessment methods, all of which can lead to a sense of not fitting in at university [ 41 ]. The use of role models to encourage participation for under-represented groups appears to be a key and widespread component of interventions in some sectors.
For example, a study of medical students highlighted the importance of role modelling and suggested that widening participation programmes needed to choose positive role models to intervene early [ 42 ]. A further analysis of Higher Education students working as student ambassadors provided prospective applicants with a role model from which to develop more accurate perceptions of higher education and challenge negative stereotypes. Furthermore, this relationship with student ambassadors were reported to be key to enhancing confidence, motivation and attitudes towards Higher Education [ 43 ].
The positive benefits offered by a career in podiatry, notably professional autonomy, financial reward, broad scope of practice, career versatility and involvement in a caring profession [ 23 , 44 ], were well understood by those studying podiatry. Many wider components, particularly autonomy, flexibility and a sense of helping were equally attractive to college students. These core elements of the podiatry profession are accurately reflected in some widely available careers information [ 45 , 46 ].
Our findings are not unique to podiatry as other professions have reported an under-representation of both the role and impact of their profession in communications with the wider public [ 48 , 49 ]. Interestingly, financial reward, which might be thought to be important, was rarely mentioned in our focus groups, unless it was specifically brought up by the facilitator. This finding highlights the need for careers information, advice and guidance in schools and colleges to be holistic and to appeal to what our participants self-identified was important to them.
In this regard it is important to match the depth knowledge associated with podiatry and the diverse range of specialisms within the field with what potential applicants want to know. Equally, the overlap and links with other courses such as Medicine, Sport Science and Biology, may not be obvious to potential participants and needs to be signposted in online resources. Provision of information, advice and guidance to participants at secondary school is a low-cost, light-touch opportunity.
The more promising interventions are those that are tailored to the participants, start early and are integrated with other forms of support, such as broader careers advice and guidance [ 50 ]. Recently, professional, regulatory and statutory bodies have combined with higher education providers to identify and implement mechanisms to reverse the decline in applications, particularly for smaller allied health professions such as podiatry.
They have introduced a range of strategic interventions, for example the Strategic Interventions in Health Education Disciplines initiative [ 51 ]. Our work highlights how important these initiatives will continue to be in reversing the decline in numbers applying to study podiatry.
Ongoing work around career opportunities remains urgently needed with education providers at all levels - school, post, and university. Early interventions through widening participation activities can potentially shape later outcomes [ 52 ], and strategies such as subject tasters are also important for showcasing different careers that participants may not have encountered in their school curriculum.
A range of activities taster days, Saturday clubs and summer schools can provide secondary school and college students with valuable information and advice around future career choices. In addition to these interventions, continuing professional development for school and college staff, to ensure up-to-date information is available and effectively disseminated to an increasingly technologically capable generation is important.
The main limitation of this work is that some members of the research team were University employees and in some cases podiatrists. We acknowledge that this may potentially influence our interpretation of the results and have led us to potentially place greater emphasis on certain factors. The robust methodology employed, offers assurance of the trustworthiness of our interpretation of the data. It should be noted that recent announcements associated with support for Nursing, Midwifery and Allied Health courses via the NHS learning support fund [ 53 ] are welcome but were made after our focus groups were held.
In conclusion, there is a chronic lack of awareness of podiatry as a career, and an urgent need to draw attention to what the profession offers, ideally with more positive role modelling in mainstream and popular media.
The career status offered by podiatry, together with the breadth of and opportunity associated with, its scope of practice, should continue to be celebrated. The College of Podiatry Careers in Podiatry. Podiatry: training: written question — HL UCAS end of cycle report Office for Students Summary: changes in healthcare entrance —7 to —1.
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