Foot Health Practitioner - 2nd year student

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Hi, I have just finished my second year studying Podiatry and somewhere along the line I have been lead to believe that once you have passed the 2nd year you are able to treat people as a foot health practitioner.

I am struggling to find any information to clarify this, especially with regards legalities (can you use a scalpel etc).

Can anyone help please?? If it is true then I am hoping to drop a few business cards around to get some extra experience (and build up a reputation) before I qualify.

Hope I've posted in the right place, thanks for reading

 

You can treat anyone under the title of "foot health practitioner" without any training at all.

 

Hi,

First off welcome to the forum it's a great resource and will teach you a lot.

I am still a 3rd year student who has limited experience but thought I would offer my opinions. First off as I understand it yes you can work as a "foot health practitioner" although you may need to get some kind of insurance (if not I would still probably advise it).

However I am not sure this is the route you want to follow. First off you are still early on in your training and are still learning, with limited experience it would be very easy to damage your reputation before you have even graduated.

Also there is probably better ways you could be spending your time. I did some extra shadowing work in both the nhs and private sector to try and boost my CV and found it to be one of the best decisions I have made.

Good luck with your final year

Ben

 

Thank you for your replies! I intend to speak with local podiatrists, think shadowing will be very beneficial. Also applied for a few carer posts to boost the funds! Will prob leave treating until I finish although my course is quite good for experience so gaining a fair bit if confidence whilst training.

Thanks again

 

Medically legally as a 2nd year is illegal to see and treat patients on your own without having an attending physician in site inspecting you. If you are from Ocpm there is the story of this kid that saw a lady in the lobby of his apartment building limping. He told her that he was a training podiatrist and if she had a ingrown toenail he was able to treat her in him apartment room. The treatment was done, no complications, the school find out what happen, the kid was kicked out from school in a week. That was 6 years of education wasted, and thousand of dollars in loans. That action is call mis-representation of a physician and in considered assault. So be careful
If you are bored the best this is look to work on a research. Retrospective studies are very easy, after IRB approval and the majority of them can exempted, in a weekend you can collect all the data and you have a paper written by the end of the week.

Students are protected by PICA only if there supervise by an attending.

 

Fortunately you enjoy far stricter regulation than we currently do in the Uk - where the original message was posted from.

 

My take on this is that as a Podiatry student you really don't want to be carrying out treatment after your 2nd year. Not saying you couldn't, just that I don't think it's a great idea.

Although there is no legal restriction on you calling yourself a Foot Health Practitioner it would be reckless in the extreme for you to do any practical work without insurance.
Chiropodists/Podiatrists do have claims made against them. I see them fairly regularly.
Some claims are fairly spurious, but you really wouldn't want any kind of clinical negligence claim being made against you prior to qualifying.
That would probably not sit too well with the HCPC.