Joanna Wesson

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!”