Podiatry: A career with body and sole

Podiatrists diagnose and manage lower limb problems, from walking disorders to footballers' metatarsal injuries

Podiatry is a medical discipline that focuses on the assessment, diagnosis and management of lower limb health problems. When you consider that an average adult takes approximately 18,000 steps a day, and that in our lifetime we walk about 70,000 miles (about three times round the world), it's no wonder that 75 to 80 per cent of adults suffer from lower limb problems at some time. Link this with the fact that 62 per cent of all sports injuries affect the lower limb and you start to get an idea of the challenges that face podiatrists.

Podiatrists diagnose and manage problems ranging from gait disorders in children to foot pathologies in the elderly; from overuse injuries in sport to ulceration in patients with diabetes.

Biomechanical assessment and techniques for the manufacture of orthotic insoles enable podiatrists to treat athletes who have a wide range of injuries. They also use exercises and heat therapies to treat soft tissue injuries, and knowledge of local anaesthetics combined with surgical skills to resolve a variety of nail disorders. A detailed understanding of vascular and neurological assessment techniques, along with wound care skills, also allow podiatrists to make a considerable contribution in the prevention of amputation in high-risk patients.

Podiatry is a regulated profession and in order to be eligible for Health Professions Council registration - and employment within the NHS - you need to undertake a recognised course of study.

There are 13 schools across the country that offer full-time - and some part-time - degrees in podiatry. The full-time course takes three or four years to complete depending on where you choose to study. The part-time course is usually completed over four-and-a-half years.

The structure of the course varies across the 13 schools. All, however, offer modular programmes. This means you are required to study and pass the assessment for each of the modules of the course. All of the courses involve hands-on clinical experience and all cover the required areas of local anaesthesia and pharmacology.

The minimum entry requirements vary from school to school so check with the institutions. However, the tariff point score ranges up to 300 across the schools and you are generally required to have a minimum of two but ideally three A-levels, one of which should be science, preferably biology-based.

PE may be considered by some institutions as an alternative. For those taking Scottish highers the general entry is four highers. One of these must be biology.

The graduate employment rate and the wide range of opportunities attracts many people to the profession. Working as a podiatrist can be exiting and rewarding because it involves working in a variety of environments with a number of other healthcare professionals and many different patients. The work falls in to five key categories: general clinics, biomechanics, high-risk patient management, surgery and private practice. As registered practitioners, many podiatrists work in the NHS, in private practice or both. There are many other places podiatrists can work too, such as the retail sector, leisure industry, occupational health, education, research and forensic podiatry.

The profession of podiatry can offer the ultimate in flexible working, so maybe it's time for you to flex your podiatry muscles!

See www.feetforlife.org for further details