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Podiatric Medicine has developed from its origins in chiropody to become a medical speciality dealing with assessment, diagnosis and treatment of the lower limb. Podiatric Medicine has developed a broad scope of practice focusing on the use of scientific principals for the diagnosis, evaluation and treatment of a wide range of lower limb disorders.
Podiatrists are autonomous professionals who may also work as part of a multi-disciplinary team within healthcare. They are enthusiastic, independent professionals who are able to adapt to working in a variety of clinical environments. Podiatry continues to be a developing progressive profession enhancing patient mobility and quality of life.
Podiatry undergraduate programs are very intensive and require considerable dedication on the part of the student. As an intrical part of study, podiatry students also have to undertake many clinical hours before they can graduate. This makes for long days at college and many evenings studying like most medically based degrees such as dentistry or physiotherapy.
Working as a Podiatrist
Working as a podiatrist can be exiting and rewarding because it involves working in a variety of environments with a number of other health care professionals and many different groups of patients who have a wide range of podiatric problems. The scope of practice of a podiatrist is often much wider than many people realise. The work falls in to five key categories: general clinics, biomechanics, high risk patient management, surgery, and private practice. Common examples of where podiatrists work are:
- General Hospital
- Private Practice
- Retail Sector
- Leisure Industry
- Occupational Health
- Research
- Forensic Podiatry
You may well end up working in more than one of the above areas. The profession of podiatry can offer the ultimate in flexible working. Both your career path and the hours you work can be flexible. This is particularly attractive to those with family commitments, for example. The degree of flexibility though does depend on the areas you choose to work in.
Podiatric medicine offers hugely rewarding career opportunities, in what is a relatively young and therefore vibrant and dynamic area of medicine. If you are seeking a career in medicine and are looking for something that will provide interest, varied opportunities and a chance to make a difference to people quality of life, then look no further than Podiatric medicine.
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