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I'm a first year student with a problem.
I've been given a patient scenario to cover a multidisciplinary team of health professionals, that includes a paediatric nurse, midwife, 2 physio's and me. The patient is a 15 year old pregnant diabetic who is involved in a road traffic accident. I am unsure what my role would consist of except from the assessment of diabetic considerations, how would a lower limb fracture involve me as a podiatrist.

Hi.
In the real world I fail to see why a podiatrist would be involved at all.
I look forward to seeing some other, perhaps more enlightening, replies.
Regards,
David

In the initial part of this scenario no one would phone you.

However after the traumatic injuries have been dealt with you then have rehabilitation and aftercare short and long term.


Short term:

So rehab could be Bio mech assess and provision of othoses perhaps even orthopaedic footwear plus caliper plus suitable protective insoles or even orthotics.

Also management of the scar tissue on the plantar surface of the foot post surgery .

You have an opportunity to make of this what youwill.

So the more severe you make the initial trauma and injury the more you can contribute to the short term and long term t/t and management. Even through to their death due to alcohol abuse and the damage caused by that.

It is an open book.

If you say it was a minor whiplash from which they make a full recovery you can offer long term nail care (only joking).

So get thinking



Long term:

Due to the severity of the injury subsequent disability is the outcome.

Also vascular and nerve damage results. Maybe even below knee amputation 8 years after accident.

Post accident depression leads to poor self care of diabetes and all that that implies for the future. Charcot Foot Osteo Myelitis etc etc

Ongoing debridement of corns callosities ,loss of range of movement in joints of leg and feet leading to long term Bio Mech problems . This leads on from short term.


Also you may be the Consultant Podaitric Surgeon with a world renowned skill in the reconstruction of the foot post major trauma.

So off you go

Good luck

It is fiction so make it convincing

regards David

It's great to see that even as a first year student you have been asked to consider your role within a multidisciplinary health team. While initially you may think that you have little to offer here, particularly with respect to your own discipline specific skills (all that orthomechanical and diabetes assessment stuff), what you will hopefully discover over the next few years is that your training has developed in you a variety of generic skills that irrespective of your discipline, can provide great assistance in the scenario you have been presented.

Have you considered the fact that as an allied health professional you probably have the skills to offer this patient the support she requires in this time of trauma (you could talk to her, comfort her). You could be a great source of information, helping her to understand how her rehabilitation is going to progress, answer her questions, ease her fears perhaps?

Increasingly, the need for us health professionals to step outside our discipline-specific boundaries (ie interdisciplinary practice) is becoming vital if our health care systems are going to be able to cope with increased demands on it. God knows there aren't enough of us health professionals out there. So, try to think outside the square a little. My wife, who trained as a podiatrist, has worked for many years in a multidisciplinary wound care team. She routinely, advises on appropriate dressings for sacral ulcers, and other wounds in all sorts of anatomical places other than the foot. How can she do this you might ask? Very simple...once you know what the principles of wound care are, they hold fast no matter where the wound is anatomically.

Food for thought - good luck with the scenario - you'll learn heaps from it!

__________________
Matthew Oates
Lecturer & Curriculum Coordinator
Department of Podiatry
Division of Allied Health
La Trobe University
Bundoora Victoria 3086
m.oates@latrobe.edu.au

Just Wanted To Say Thank You For The Advice.
It's A Daunting Prospect When You Think You Know Absolutely Nothing About The More Complex Roles As A Pod. We Are Being Taught About Multidisciplinary Teams Now To Enable Better Cooperation Once We Qualify, Lets Hope It Actually Works!

Multi-disciplinary approach works well in real life, in both the NHS and in private practice. I'm just not sure about the relevance of this particular assignment to a pod student.

Good luck with it anyway :) .
Regards,
Davidh