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Hi

Could anyone please advise me on the guidelines in Australia regarding the cutting of finger nails by a Podiatrist? Is this permitted?

Cheers

 

jlascot, no, mark

 

nope; However, would love to get a statement from one of the insurance companies about what would happen if someone did do it and there was a problem.

 

In my 25 plus year of podiatry practice I cut a lot of fingernails, I always reminded the patient that I was not doing this as their podiatrist, but because I was a fellow human who could understand their distress at not being able to cut their own fingernails.

Often requests came from the patients Carer who was struggling to manage the nails of the patient. I would also advise the carer to seek an alternative for the next cutting, however when you have a patient with hemiplegia resulting in curled up fingers, that required someone to hold the hand out straight while the nails were cut, there are no special services to carry out this role.

Personally I would not get a podiatrist to cut my fingernails, the result of nails cut with clippers and filed with a rasp is not really in the same league as having a manicure. It is really a functional business.

 

For non-pathologic nails I'll usually tell people to get a friend or family member to do it. But I think podiatrists probably see more complex nail pathology than beauty therapists, and we have sterile instruments to work with.

The one patient I did do fingernails for regularly was a patient with gryphotic, fungal fingernails (and toenails) who was on peritoneal dialysis. I gave him the usual disclaimers about "technically I'm not supposed to be doing this", but realistically, who else has the equipment, training and experience to deal with that? Given he had the same pathology in his feet, I figure it might be relevant as "foot-related structures". And I was pretty confident that if anything were to go wrong, logic would side with me as to the risks of peritonitis being greater than the risks of paronychia or a finger wound, given he didn't use gloves when hooking up to PD.