Bachelor of Science (Podiatric Medicine)

Program Overview

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What is Podiatric Medicine?

The Student Perspective

Clinical Education

Entry Points (2022) 462

Course Overview

Podiatric Medicine is a branch of medicine devoted to the medical and surgical treatment of the foot, ankle and lower limb.

A podiatrist is an autonomous clinician who specializes in the diagnosis, treatment and management of lower limb conditions. Podiatry can significantly improve peoples’ quality of life by promoting and maintaining mobility. Therefore, podiatric medicine as a career can be extremely rewarding and fulfilling and can give immense job satisfaction.

Podiatrists work in a variety of settings in the public and private sectors. Podiatrists will treat patients of all age ranges and at all stages of life. The scope of practice of a podiatrist ranges from:

Management of skin and nail pathologies

Management of patients with diseases that can compromise the viability of the foot and lower limbs, e.g. diabetes, vascular disease, wound care.

Musculoskeletal conditions

Biomechanics and gait analysis

Sports injuries

Paediatrics

Minor surgical procedures

What is a high risk foot?

What is Musculoskeletal Podiatry?

The B.Sc. (Hons.) Podiatric Medicine programme is designed to educate and train those who wish to pursue a professional career in podiatry, as a health care professional, who specialises in the management of disease and disorder of the lower limb and foot.

Clinical placements are a pivotal area of learning within the podiatric Medicine programme. Students are gradually introduced to clinical practice by use of simulated techniques and case exemplars. Onsite clinical placement and learning at Merlin Park Podiatry Clinic unite the theory with the ‘hands on’ practice education, facilitated by the academic and clinical teams. Clinical placements are integrated into each year of the programme, so that students will have the opportunity to put their knowledge into practice and develop their clinical skills.

The main aims of clinical education are:

To apply knowledge, professional reasoning and professional behaviour within practice

To promote professional competence

To work as an effective team member

To promote professional confidence

To provide opportunities for students to integrate theoretical and practical learning The clinical teaching programme involves experience with patients from various medical/surgical disciplines; this ensures a high level of quality practice education for students.

We welcome applications from school leavers, international students as well as mature applicants. The Discipline is committed to providing a comprehensive education for Podiatrists and the curriculum is based on best available evidence in relation to both theory and practice.

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Who Teaches this Course

The core academic staff team on the BSc Podiatric Medicine programme consist of:

Prof. Caroline McIntosh – Head of School of Health Sciences/ Established Professor and Head of Podiatric Medicine

Dr. Claire MacGilchrist: BSc Podiatric Medicine Program Director/ Lecturer in Podiatric Medicine.

Ms. Amanda Walsh - Lecturer in Podiatric Medicine, BSc Podiatric Medicine year 1 coordinator.

Ms. Olga Carey - Lecturer in Podiatric Medicine, BSc Podiatric Medicine year 2 coordinator.

Mr. Adam McIlwaine - Lecturer in Podiatric Medicine, BSc Podiatric Medicine year 3 coordinator.

Mr Nigel Roberts – Lecturer and Practice Education Coordinator, BSc Podiatric Medicine year 4 coordinator.

Ms. Sarah O’Connell - Lecturer in Podiatric Medicine

Ms. Angela McAnearney Podiatrist/Guest Lecturer

Ms. Fiona Lowry - Admin. Assistant

Ms. Geraldine Farrelly - Admin. Assistant

There is also input from members of staff in other disciplines within the university, who lead on and contribute to modules across the four years of the programme, including anatomy, physiology, microbiology and pharmacology.

The clinical placements throughout the program are supervised at Merlin Park Podiatry clinic, by a dedicated HSE staff team, who host a variety of skills and experience to enhance the students’ clinical learning experience.

Program Outline

Course Outline

The B.Sc. (Hons.) Podiatric Medicine programme is designed to educate and train those who wish to pursue a professional career in podiatry, as a health care professional, who specialises in the management of disease and disorder of the lower limb and foot. The Discipline is committed to providing a comprehensive education for podiatrists and the curriculum is based on best available evidence in relation to both theory and practice.

Year 1

Central to the curriculum are the podiatric medicine modules. These modules extend throughout the programme building from year one to integrate and articulate with the theoretical learning. In first year the students are introduced to clinical protocols and pre-clinical skills, they then develop and acquire the essential psychomotor and communication skills required for podiatric practice.

1st year modules deal mainly with normal structure and function. This allows time to absorb and reflect on normal function and structure prior to progressing to abnormal structure and disease states in year two. Year 1 modules include:

Podiatric Medicine 1

Podiatric Dermatology

Lower Limb Kinematics

Human Body Structure

Gross Anatomy of Lower limb

Human Body Function

Professional Development

Redefining Health and Wellbeing

Year 2

Various aspects of management planning skills are introduced at each stage of the program. Ultimately students acquire assessment and diagnostic skills and increasing competence leads to a comprehensive podiatric patient management, which requires increasing cognitive and psychomotor skills to affect safe and efficient patient care. The following modules advance the students theoretical knowledge and core practical skills, with an increasing complexity of patient assessment and management required in the clinical setting during year two of the program. Second year modules include:

Podiatric Medicine 2

Lower Extremity Wounds

Applied Pathophysiology

Endocrinology

Microbiology

Functional Anatomy and Biomechanics

Evidence Based Practice

Health Promotion in Podiatry

Year 3

This state of the art clinical facility provides a service to patients with a wide variety of medical and surgical conditions, children, sports injuries, rheumatology, vascular and diabetes care. Students in year three of the program undertake specialist clinical rotations in adult musculoskeletal medicine, paediatrics, rheumatology, vascular and diabetes care.

Students are encouraged to develop the necessary skills to understand critique and apply research-based evidence in practice. Research approaches and methodologies are covered within years 2 and 3 of the programme ensuring students receive grounding in research methods and biostatistics before they apply this knowledge in their dissertation in year 4. Modules in year 3 include:

Podiatric Medicine 3

Clinical Medicine

Research Methods & Design

Biostatistics

Podopaediatrics

Orthopaedics

Pharmacology in Health and Disease

Year 4

The overall aim of the programme is to develop caring and skilled honours graduates who are knowledgeable, creative, innovative and competent practitioners applying an enquiring and scientific ethos to health care. Students consolidate a lot of their knowledge and skills in year four, which includes the following modules:

Research Dissertation

Podiatric Medicine 4

Skills for Practice

Working with Vulnerable Adults

High Risk Limb

Podiatric Sports and MSK Medicine

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Curriculum Information

Curriculum information relates to the current academic year (in most cases).

Course and module offerings and details may be subject to change.

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Glossary of Terms

Credits

You must earn a defined number of credits (aka ECTS) to complete each year of your course. You do this by taking all of its required modules as well as the correct number of optional modules to obtain that year's total number of credits.

Module

An examinable portion of a subject or course, for which you attend lectures and/or tutorials and carry out assignments. E.g. Algebra and Calculus could be modules within the subject Mathematics. Each module has a unique module code eg. MA140.

Subject

Some courses allow you to choose subjects, where related modules are grouped together. Subjects have their own required number of credits, so you must take all that subject's required modules and may also need to obtain the remainder of the subject's total credits by choosing from its available optional modules.

Optional

A module you may choose to study.

Required

A module that you must study if you choose this course (or subject).

Required Core Subject

A subject you must study because it's integral to that course.

Semester

Most courses have 2 semesters (aka terms) per year, so a three-year course will have six semesters in total. For clarity, this page will refer to the first semester of year 2 as 'Semester 3'.

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Year 1 (60 Credits)

Required

PO1060:

Podiatric Medicine 1

- 20 Credits - Semester 1

Required

PO1050:

Podiatric Dermatology

- 5 Credits - Semester 1

Required

PO100:

Professional Development

- 5 Credits - Semester 1

Required

SI317:

Human Body Function

- 10 Credits - Semester 1

Required

AN230:

Human Body Structure

- 5 Credits - Semester 1

Required

PO103:

Redefining Health & Well Being

- 5 Credits - Semester 1

Required

PO1040:

Lower Limb Kinematics

- 5 Credits - Semester 2

Required

AN112:

Gross Anatomy of the Lower Limb

- 5 Credits - Semester 2

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Year 2 (60 Credits)

Required

PO2104:

Lifestyle Medicine

- 5 Credits - Semester 3

Required

PO2080:

Podiatric Medicine 2

- 20 Credits - Semester 3

Required

SI3102:

Endocrinology

- 5 Credits - Semester 3

Required

PO2070:

Lower Extremity Wounds

- 5 Credits - Semester 4

Required

PO2060:

Evidence Based Practice

- 5 Credits - Semester 4

Required

PO2112:

Microbiology

- 5 Credits - Semester 4

Required

PO2101:

Applied Pathophysiology

- 5 Credits - Semester 4

Required

PO203:

Functional Anatomy & Biomechanics

- 10 Credits - Semester 4

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Year 3 (60 Credits)

Required

PO3103:

Pharmacology for Podiatrists

- 10 Credits - Semester 5

Required

PO3102:

Clinical Medicine

- 10 Credits - Semester 5

Required

PO3081:

Research Methods & Design

- 5 Credits - Semester 5

Required

PO3060:

Podopaediatrics

- 5 Credits - Semester 5

Required

PO3070:

Podiatric Medicine 3

- 20 Credits - Semester 5

Required

PO3100:

Orthopaedics

- 5 Credits - Semester 6

Required

PO3080:

Biostatistics

- 5 Credits - Semester 6

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Year 4 (60 Credits)

Required

PO4100:

Podiatric Sports and Musculoskeletal Medicine

- 5 Credits - Semester 7

Required

PO4070:

Podiatric Medicine 4

- 15 Credits - Semester 7

Required

PO4060:

High Risk Limb

- 5 Credits - Semester 7

Required

PO402:

Skills for Practice

- 10 Credits - Semester 7

Required

PO401:

Working with Vulnerable Adults

- 5 Credits - Semester 7

Required

PO400:

Research Dissertation

- 20 Credits - Semester 8

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Why Choose This Course?

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Career Opportunities

Podiatric Medicine is an interesting and broad career and graduates have a variety of employment opportunities at home and abroad. The Podiatric Medicine programme has been developed in response to a recognised need for podiatrists in Ireland and is the only course available in the Republic of Ireland.

Theoretical Education

Theoretical education is enhanced throughout the four years of the programme through the support and contribution of other Disciplines within the University. Core subjects including anatomy and physiology are delivered by experts within their respective disciplines enhancing programme delivery and the student experience. Furthermore, input from other disciplines throughout the programme including, microbiology, psychology, health promotion, medicine and pharmacology augments the programme and ensures credibility and currency of modular content, as well as increasing student awareness of the role of other health care disciplines.

Practice Education

Practice based modules focus on the integration of theory and practice allowing the student to apply new knowledge and integrate it in to clinical practice. Practice education is a process of work-based learning which involves a partnership between the practice educator and the student in the practice setting. All students are required to complete a minimum of 1,000 hours of practice education successfully under the supervision of qualified Podiatrists. Practice education will be undertaken each year. Most practice education takes place at Unit 3, Podiatry Dept, Merlin Park Podiatry Clinic, Merlin Park University Hospital, Galway. This state of the art facility provides a service to patients with a wide variety of medical and surgical conditions, children, sports injuries and patients requiring soft tissue surgery. Practice education aims to introduce the students to the culture of the profession. It facilitates the development and application of the knowledge, attitudes, values and skills needed for the execution of appropriate professional behaviours.

Employment Opportunities

Graduates of the programme can work in a variety of settings, these include:

Public hospitals- acute hospital services, specialist services e.g. diabetes, vascular.

Private hospitals- specialist services e.g. MSK/ orthopaedics

Primary Care Centres

GP Practices

Nursing homes/ residential facilities

Sports centres/ clubs

Private practice

Education

Research Graduates also have the option of studying a variety of programmes at postgraduate, Masters & PhD level.

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Work Placement

Clinical Practice, a process of work-based learning which involves a partnership between the Clinical Educator and the student in the practice setting, is an integral part of the programme. All students are required to complete 1,000 hours of clinical practice successfully under the supervision of qualified podiatrists. Clinical practice will be integrated into each year of the programme and primarily takes place in Merlin Park Podiatry Clinic, based at Merlin Park Hospital, Galway. This facility provides an out-patient podiatry service to patients with a variety of medical and surgical conditions, children, people with sports injuries and patients requiring soft tissue surgery. The programme is the only such professionally accredited qualification in the Republic of Ireland.

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About University of Galway

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