How well does the current 3 year core podiatry training in the UK equip the new graduate for work in

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Please help. The above title forms the subject for my final module in my MSc. I need to do literature searches and find out various bits of information as well as hearing your opinion. I would need to know which sector you work in (NHS or Private), if you do any audits of patient types, to ascertain whether that patient cold get NHS treatment or not , if there is anyone reading this who can help, I also need to find out what % graduates first jobs are within which sector. How the training is funded. How the placements are funded, how placements are selected, what % is in which sector....
I also need to find out about the curriculum, competency based framework or not?

If anyone has any information or suggest ways of me finding it out, people to speak to etc, I should be most grateful.

Please help if you can, I have a deadline!!

Beverley Ashdown

 

Hi Bev

I can't answer much of the stuff in your post as it is outside of my experience. However, I think the answer to your title question might be dependent upon who is or was doing the training.

In the days when the SMAE or the Institute provided Podiatry training then I would suggest you could have left equipped to undertake private work within your limited remit quite well. Whether you had the complete set of "core podiatry skills" that you might assume exist in the NHS trained is unlikely in those days.

As to whether the current training in Podiatry fulfils the essence of your question then I think the answer might be "very little". This however I think is because, firstly, it is not the remit of the course or training, secondly, in PP some of the higher skills, of diabetology within team setting for example, is minimally used in PP and you fall back onto more traditional podiatry skills which are often repeat work. BMX and orthotics has been a source of PP income. However, to get established as a business requires just as much people skills as anything else and to be in business many years later also requires continual exercise of thos skills with business acumen. Luck can also come into it.

 

I would contact the heads of schools who should be able to furnish you with the majority of this information.

 

As a recent graduate I think a big concern among my cohort was the logistics of running a business (stocking, finding premises, taxation issues, compliance with health and safety). My university did address these issues to an extent but clearly clinical skills were given greater priority.

I was one of the few graduates from my university who found a job in the NHS. Most people have gone into the private sector and were already planning on doing this or were resigned to the fact that there just weren't that many jobs in the NHS.

 

Out of interest, Sharrison1, did the undergrad programme you undertook offer student placements in private practice?


Bel