Voting with her feet – graduate podiatrist gains top marks
Mon, 27 Jul 2015 06:01:00 BST
Lauren Burdett now starts her career as an NHS podiatrist with Derbyshire Community and Health Service
WITNESSING some of the problems faced by her diabetic grandfather steered University of Huddersfield graduate Lauren Burdett towards a vital area of health care that is far more demanding and diverse than generally realised. She has just achieved a First Class Honours in her BSc Podiatry degree and now embarks on a NHS-based career that will call on a wide range of the skills, experience and knowledge she has developed over her three-year course.
Lauren, who is aged 21 and from Chesterfield, always knew that her career would be in a healthcare profession – mother Amanda has worked as a home carer - and she had plans to study medicine. But she was drawn towards podiatry, and as her career progresses she is likely to specialise in its important diabetic dimension.
She became powerfully aware of this because of her grandfather.
“Diabetics have a sensory loss within the feet,” explained Lauren. “Ulcerations often occur due to pressure and poor fitting footwear can often play a role. They might not feel pain even when standing on a pin and we see patients with extensive ulcers that have developed because of an issue they have not been aware of for months.
Lauren, who attended Netherthorpe School, Staveley, has made such a success of her degree studies, clinical work and the placements built into her course, that she has won a Chancellor’s Prize, awarded to the top echelon of high-scoring students throughout the University of Huddersfield along with a Dean’s Award for highest overall score within her course. Now she begins full-time work as an NHS podiatrist with Derbyshire Community and Health Service.
From the early stages of her degree course she and her fellow students were carrying out treatments in the University’s own podiatry clinic. These included the “debridement” of callosities – podiatrists are among very few healthcare professionals qualified to carry out sharp debridement on patients.
Lauren also moved on to more complex treatment of callus build-up around ulcers, plus musculoskeletal problems that are often caused by sports injuries. She has also enjoyed developing skills such as the design and manufacture of orthoses to be worn in shoes as a way of alleviating problems such as foot, ankle, knee, hip and back pain.
“But when I told people I had switched my studies to podiatry I had a lot of funny looks. They think you are just going to be a toenail cutter!” said Lauren.
Her first clinic was nerve-wracking, she admits, but she has now taken part in hundreds, and the opportunities for practical experience and lab work were among the factors that made her course a great experience, she said.
Lauren may eventually return to the University of Huddersfield to take some postgraduate modules or to take part in clinical education.
“I definitely hope to keep up a relationship with the University because the lecturers have been wonderful.”
