Podiatrist Assistant

Members do not see these Ads. Sign Up.

Hi All,
I am from India, where podiatrist are hard to find. Ironically diabetes population is raising and foot related issues are increasing. Getting podiatrsit and its recognition will take time. Until than could we have podiatrist assistant, who could atleast do the regular foot examination can detect these complications at an early stage and prevent the patient from losing part or all of his foot.
Could you please tell me what are the basic requirement that would be needed for a podiatrist assistant. How could a course curriculum be designed for the same or if you can suggest website where these kind of courses are available. I am not a podiatrist but I deal with lot of diabetic patient.
Thanks
SM

 

SM, a podiatry assistant is trained in basic skills such as cutting toe nails and in some cases debridement of calluses. i dont think they can diagnose or detect any complication in a diabetic foot. Academically, as far i know they do not have the training a podiatrist has. in australia pod assistants are employed to assist podiatrist and in a low risk client assist by cutting toe nails or debriding callus.

from what you have put in your post you might be better off with a podiatrist.

pleae let me know if you need any further information.

 

Hi,
There is now a Foundation Degree for Podiatry Assistant being run at the Canterbury ChristChurch University in Kent. There are also modules within the NVQ level 3 Health Awards in the UK.
There was talk of a project between the University of Northampton School of Podiatry and the Indian government to do with training Podiatrist and Podiatry Assistants. If you want to email me I can ask our head of school for more info.

Regards
Colin

 

Hi SM,

In Australia there is a "training package" for allied health assistant training which has the option of podiatry electives and taught by registered training organizations (RTO) with the package "on scope". This formal education process for podiatry assistants is still a relatively new concept. Its actually quite difficult for students to meet all the criteria required for this formal training as a great deal of workplace supervision is required. Hence, the student is normally already employed in the podiatric environment.

As a trainer for a podiatric assistant course, I can confirm that we do teach basic foot assessment including circulation and neurological testing to determine risk status. The assistant is not meant to actually diagnose, but recognize the warning signs and seek further help from a fully qualified podiatrist if concerned.

The assistants we train must work in accordance with the Podiatry Board of Australia's assistant guidelines.

For the full training package details on the Australian qualification have a look at this link;
http://training.gov.au/Training/Details/HLT42507
This link gives some information on podiatry assistant training run by podiatrists in a company affiliated with the Australian Podiatry Association, South Australia, Inc;
http://www.podtraining.com.au/POD_IN_HEALTH_TRAINING/Home.html

The situation in India will obviously be different and not subject to the regulations imposed on workers within another country, but you may find the above information useful.

Good luck,

Brenda.

 

Thanks a lot for your reply.
I agree that Podiatrist are the one who have right set of skills and can diagonse the real problem. However, we do not have many podiatrist in India. Inaddition the basic foot care is unrecognised in India. Therefore, we were thinking if we can provide some formal training (not as intensive as required by podiatrist) to our people, that could help in detecting problems earlier and seek timely treatment. They could refer risk patient to podiatrist, thus time of the podiatrist could be well utilized.
I need to know what are the basic skills and knowldege that any podiatrist would like his assistant to know, so that he could rely on his decision.

Regards,
SM

 

Thanks Colin,
I saw the course that is offered at the University of Northampton, it's BSc (Hons).
I would greatly appreciate if you could provide more info related to project between indian government and University of Northampton if it is materialzed.

Regards,
SM

 

Thanks a lot for sharing the info. Yes i totally agree that "the assistant is not meant to actually diagnose, but recognize the warning signs and seek further help" therefore, wanted our people to be trained as assistant. Do you have the details of each module that is covered in the course work --detail course description and if you could share.

Regards,
SM

 

Hi SM,

If you go onto the http://training.gov.au/Training/Details/HLT42507 link, scroll down to "Qualification Components", on page 4 you will find a unit called HLTAH404B - Assist with foot hygiene. I think this unit outlines the skills/knowledge set that would be of most use to you.

I could go on for pages about podiatry assistant training based on the Australian model, so please feel free to email me direct via contact details listed on the http://www.podtraining.com.au/POD_IN_HEALTH_TRAINING/Home.html link if you want further discussion or explanation on information from the training.gov site.

Brenda.