Podiatry pod grad internships in high risk foot

There is a shortage of podiatrists to take up jobs in hispitals for high risk foot clinics. Bringing in overseas experienced clinicians can only be a short term fix. I suggest we make use of the Local graduates of AUT podiatry programme and have post graduate internships in the hsopitals. This will allow local graduates to have the opportunity fior experience in this aspect iof podiatry as well as create a supply of experienced clinicians who are aware of the local health care and community context.

These interns would be mentored on the job with a curriculum set.

These would need to be paid posts at graduate entry level that perhaps can be of 2 years durations. This could be perhaps done along with the diploma in high risk foot offered at AUT.

 

This sort of clinical experience is rare and making use of locallly trained workforce would be an answer.

Why the contribution is important

Shortage of podiatrists experinced in diabetic and high risk foot.

by jcar102 on November 05, 2022 at 08:34AM

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Average rating: 4.4
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Comments

  • Posted by aliciascott November 09, 2022 at 13:15

    Sounds like a great idea. Support for podiatry workforce in hospital settings could be improved nationally. I don't know this workforce well, but my impression is it is vulnerable with often only 1x podiatrist (sometimes contracted) entering into the hospital space. Regional expert level roles and/or professional lead roles might also be worth exploring to improve the support and education of the workforce.

  • Posted by SteveYork November 16, 2022 at 08:56

    Here's an insight of the podiatry workforce issues;

    1. As at 12/09/2022 there were approximately 45 podiatrists employed by Te Whatu Ora who are providing 36.4 FTE of secondary podiatry services in 16 districts.
    2. At the same time, there was approximately 7.35 FTE which were vacant positions in nine districts and many are long-standing vacancies.
    3. AUT Podiatry school anticipates that there will be; 27 graduates this year (2022); 18 graduates next year (2023); and 39 graduates who are currently enrolled in year one this year (2024).
    4. Te Whatu Ora is facing immense recruitment competition from Australia and the private sector with higher remuneration packages. Not only for recent graduates, but also our experienced workforce.
    5. It is forecasted that the podiatry profession (numbers) will only increase by 56 additional podiatrists from 471 this year to 527 in 2032 (10-years).
    6. It is also forecasted that the headcount of podiatrists per 100K patients with diabetes will decrease by 19 podiatrists and a reduction of 15 FTE positions in 10-years.
    7. During the past 10-years in relation to diabetes related lower limb amputations, the number of patients, number of admissions, number of amputations and the total in-patient costs have nearly doubled.
    8. Māori disproportionately suffer (incidence rate) and are affected more from amputations than Pasifica, Indian and NZ European/other populations.
    9. Last year (2021/22), 719 patients were admitted 858 times to undergo 1147 diabetes related lower limb amputations. Occupying 12,357 hospital bed stays and costing $23.5 million dollars in in-patients costs.
    10. So, if the 'costs' of amputations for patients and the health system has doubled in the past 10-years, what is the impact to those 'costs' with a diminishing podiatry workforce likely to be? Disastrous, tragic and ...........

  • Posted by andimc74 November 20, 2022 at 21:34

    Podiatrists still aren't identified as a priority area for AH S&T workforce regardless of meeting the current identified workforce challenges:-

    High workforce challenges (vacancies, fatigue, attrition)
    Difficult training pathways with limitations for entry +high clinical placement training hour requirements.
    Poor representation of Maori and Pacific peoples in the workforce
    unable to work at the top of scope due to stretched resources
    workforce required for planned care restore and reset
    Changing models of care
    Additional FTE required to accommodate supervision for trainees - currently not budgeted
    Out of scope FTE. Renumeration and reward.

    Reading the above stats from SteveYork you would think that this would be clearly evident that it is a priority area. But also linked to another post that Podiatrists could be also recruited into other areas to improve outcomes related to lower limb health and primary care prevention of lower imb problems.

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