Joanna Wesson
Podiatry assistant
Case study
Joanna Wesson: Podiatry assistant, Derbyshire NHS Community Health Service
Choosing a career and family life
Joanna works as a podiatry assistant within Derbyshire NHS Community Health Service (DCHS). She decided to embark on a career within the NHS because it allowed her to work closer to home and offered her a flexible working pattern. Joanna has always worked in healthcare, having worked as a dental practice manager before having her family. When she joined DCHS in 2017, she worked as a ward clerk, a health records officer and as a clinic receptionist and realised that she enjoyed working with patients within the clinical environment.
In 2022 Joanna was successful in her application to move into a more clinical, hands-on role as a podiatry assistant. When she applied for the role she realised that she had many transferable skills from her previous job roles such as working with the public, dealing with queries, problem-solving, IT skills, clinical daily routines and practice management. These skills and attributes have made the transition from clerical to clinical easier than she first thought.
Joanna is currently enrolled on the Royal College of Podiatry (RCPod) Podiatry Assistant Training Programme and with the support of her podiatry supervisor, she is working her way through the distance learning course. The training programme has provided the opportunity for Joanna to work within a multidisciplinary foot health team with other podiatry assistants, podiatrists and podiatric surgeons. She has developed the medical knowledge of the foot and lower limb and has many new skills such as, but not limited to, taking patient pre- surgical patient observations, skin and nail care techniques, dressing applications and peri-clinical tasks.
At the beginning of her training programme, she observed many different types of podiatry clinics including podiatric surgery, MSK, diabetes and high-risk clinics. This has enabled her to grow her understanding of patient care and treatment pathways. Under the guidance of her supervisor and other podiatry team members, Joanna has started to treat patients and has developed a regular patient clinic offering nail and skin care treatments. Joanna enjoys her work and finds the interaction with the patients very rewarding. She was nervous about treating patients at first, but with support and under the delegation and supervision of her podiatry colleagues she has grown in confidence and has had wonderful patient feedback: “You’re very gentle with my feet, thank you”.
Joanna was aware that embarking on a new career wasn’t going to be easy, but she has found it very rewarding and aspires, on completion of her course, to join the podiatry apprenticeship route and become a podiatrist. Her top tip is “Believe in yourself, it’s never too late!”
Simone Fox and Becky Hargreaves
York Podiatry Ltd
Case study
Simone Fox and Becky Hargreaves: York Podiatry Ltd
Upskilling the team and adding business value
Simone's career journey has gone from ballet dancing to podiatry due to her interest in MSK and knowing the importance of good foot care when dancing.
Simone embarked on her journey into the foot health team when she applied for a job at York Podiatry in 2019 as a receptionist. She has a naturally curious nature and was intrigued to find out what the role of the podiatrist was, whilst she was welcoming and rebooking patients. It didn’t take long before Simone offered to support the podiatrists with peri-clinical duties such as stock control and befriending patients before nail surgery. She had “always wanted a tunic” and after discussions with Becky, podiatrist and practice owner, she enrolled on the Royal College of Podiatry (RCPod) assistant practice training programme. Training up a podiatry assistant was a new business venture for Becky, but she took the advice and realised the potential of a support worker within her practice.
Simone wanted to explore her career options as her children became less dependent on her. She still required some flexibility in her working pattern so training and becoming a podiatry assistant was not something she thought she could do. She spoke with Becky and the podiatry team at York Podiatry Ltd and they found a way to balance the training, with work, so that it suited her.
Simone and her podiatrist supervisor are now working their way through the two-year training programme and enjoying the process. The team at York Podiatry Ltd have embraced the in-house training and they have all gained some practice educator skills to support their professional portfolio. As Simone has gone through the programme, she has gained some of her clinical competencies. Therefore, under the delegation and supervision of a podiatrist, she has begun treating or supporting patients within many different types of clinical appointments. She has a regular nail and skin care clinic, assists in nail surgery, and supports the new patient clinics by screening for plantar foot pressures, using pressure plate analysis, and providing the results for the podiatrists to review. This is something that she enjoys very much as she can understand the risks associated with overloading bones, joints and soft tissue from her time in ballet dancing.
The whole podiatry team has seen the value in upskilling Simone to support their career, clinical duties, and patient management. The patients have said they feel valued by the level of service they receive and welcome the preventative screening measures that Simone conducts before the podiatry review. As a business, this model supports personalising care for the patients due to the variety of services that are provided by the team. This approach empowers them to make shared decisions about their care. Since Simone has been supporting the clinics Becky has seen an increase in patients visiting the clinic as they build on appointment capacity. This has led to an increase in the available budget for equipment, education, and training as well as general maintenance of the clinic.
Both Becky and Simone are pleased that they embarked on this journey together and hope to train another podiatry assistant in the future.
Watch as Becky talks about the benefits of having a podiatry assistant in her business model, and Simone reflects on the skills and attributes she has brought from her previous job to her new role as a podiatry assistant: