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Podiatry Medical Assistants

Discussion in 'United Kingdom' started by betafeet, Feb 8, 2008.

  1. betafeet

    betafeet Active Member


    Members do not see these Ads. Sign Up.
    I have noted that our friends across the sea have Podiatry Medical Assistants, courses for Medical Assistants are available after they have work in a Podiatry office for one year. Have we got anything similar here and if not why not.

    Due to a more rigorous patient assessment also to stay concurrent with record keeping and sterilisation. The choice at this time was to allow more time per patient which in the long run would reduce my income. Therefore I have taken the leap to employ my own Podiatry Assistance who works along side me taking patient notes while I work, keeping all the paper work up to date the surgery clean and tidy and instruments ready for use plus many other chores!!!!. I pay her £6 per hour, she saves me at least 2 hours a day on meanial tasks and allowes me to give my patients my undivided attention without increasing their normal 30 min appointment time, saving me money and increasing my income by being able to treat more patients.

    I have found this to be one of the best steps I have taken, it has made my treatments more relaxed, left more time for patient assessments and treatments and has made me more efficient and leaves me more time for reflective practice improving patient outcome. I could never go back to the old way now. Should we not be moving foreward and uping the profile of our profession to be inline with Dentists who have Dental Nurses.

    I look foreward to your comments and hope to use this exercise in my next bit of research.

    Thank you all

    jude
     
  2. Admin2

    Admin2 Administrator Staff Member

  3. victoriah

    victoriah Active Member

    I agree that having an assistant is a great idea. Oddly, the only time ever worked with one was when I did a student placement at Boots, some years ago. During my working life as a pod, the experience was very different.

    In my last job (a private clinic), I had 30 minutes per patient, and this included: preparation of and drying off after the foot bath, taking a medical history, undertaking treatment, writing notes and cleaning the clinic and instruments before the next one came in...no break between patients, and I worked from 8.30 to 1.30, then 2 to 7.30, no break whatsoever (not even 5 minutes to catch up). An assistant in such circumstances would have improved my working life immeasurably.
     
  4. Mart

    Mart Well-Known Member

    I agree totaly, I am not aware that we have any formal training available in Canada either but have done the simliarly as yourself over the past 2 years. I also have trained my Pod asst to do all data collection for gait exams and some other measurements like lunge tests and supination resistance testing. This cuts cost of doing this enormously for patient.

    cheers

    Martin



    The St. James Foot Clinic
    1749 Portage Ave.
    Winnipeg
    Manitoba
    R3J 0E6
    phone [204] 837 FOOT (3668)
    fax [204] 774 9918
    www.winnipegfootclinic.com
     
  5. betafeet

    betafeet Active Member

    Hi Martin and Victoria,

    I see they have a similar system in Oz I do forecast that in 10 years we will see Podiatric Medical Assistants in all private podiatry offices and clinics. In my opionion I feel this would put an end to the confusion in this country putting in bounderies and structure.

    According to the United States Bureau of Labour Statistics (2006) medical assisting is anticipated to be one of the highest rising professions.

    For those of you who have not heard of Podiatry Medical Assistants; Medical Assistants (MA) are a health care worker who performs the administrative and clinical tasks keeping the offices of doctors, podiatrists, chiropractors, and other health practitioners running efficient manor. Although there are no formal qualifications required to become a podiatry assistant and training is usually given on the in-house on-the-job, usually around 500 hours. (American Society of Podiatric Medical Assistants 2007) They are not licensed professionals and are always required by law to work under the direct supervision of a licensed health care provider such as a podiatrist. The American Society of Podiatric Medical Assistants (ASPMA) is an organization of Podiatric Medical Assistants in the USA with approximately 1600 members whose function is to advance the profession of Podiatric Medical Assisting by providing educational accreditation opportunities for its members.

    They should not be confused with a Physician Assistant (PA), who are licensed and may obtain medical histories, perform examinations, diagnose, interpret diagnostic tests, and treat patients under the supervision of a physician.


    http://www.podiatrysa.net.au/documents/Handbook2006.pdf
    http://www.aama-ntl.org/resources/library/AAMA_ContentOutline.pdf
    http://www.aspma.org
    http://www.aspma.org/articles/Available articles/04.html
    http://www.bls.gov/oco/ocos164.htm
    (http://stats.bls.gov/emp/emptab3.htm).

    jude
     
  6. betafeet

    betafeet Active Member

    Just found this little gem in the back folders posted by Bill Liggins 16th Oct 2004:
    jude
     
  7. betafeet

    betafeet Active Member

    And this one posted by Admin 2, Administrator, posted on 28th October 2005.
    Jude
     
    Last edited by a moderator: Feb 11, 2008
  8. admin

    admin Administrator Staff Member

    We previously had a subforum on Podiatry Assistants of but it never took off, so has been merged into the General Forum.
     
  9. Cheesy

    Cheesy Member

    :dizzy:Our podiatry assistants are wonderful. Not only do they have their own clinics carrying out basic nail care on both low and high risk patients, they carry their own dom caseloads, stock the clinics, help with audit work, assist during nail surgery, carry out nail surgery re dressings, assist with patient education sessions. Also they prep patients before very busy biomechanics clinics, doing notes etc and in the diabetic clinic we run we have a podiatry assistant who does everything from stock control, patient assistance, tidying, notes to using the cast saw to take off BK casts etc etc...invaluable. although we dont work with them during 'normal' podiatry clinics, they see a lot of the basic nail care patients, allowing us to focus on the more complex and/or skin pathologies/ulcers etc:drinks
    highly recommended!
     
  10. dillydonut

    dillydonut Welcome New Poster

    I have been working as a footcare assistant for 6 months for the nhs, I am about to take my footcare assistant exam and we a re eagerly looking for other courses I could do. there are foundation degrees in podiatry, foundation degree in health science, nvq level 4 in care etc, I would like to increase the scope of my current role, I currently assist in nail surgery, have a clinic of low risk patients, filing archiving etc, but I would like to know what other organisations have been able to use their assistants for especially in a bio mechanics clinic ( we do not have a lab and do not manufacture our own insoles). redressing PNAs might be an option, laser therapy, community education, training care providers how to cut nails properly.

    any thought would be greatly appreciated
    Dill
     
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