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If a FHP. School with a degree in place could perhaps allow the use of course modules from a FHP. course to exempt year one and possibly year two! They then put in place a final year or two as a converter to B.Sc.!!! Would the HPC. recognize the school and give it accreditation???
Could this be the unforeseen BACK-DOOR? A way to further promotion from FHP. to Chiropodist in the future? A new route for FHP.'s onto the Register of Chiropodists/Podiatrist in say three or four years!
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If a FHP. School with a degree in place could perhaps allow the use of course modules from a FHP. course to exempt year one and possibly year two! They then put in place a final year or two as a converter to B.Sc.!!! Would the HPC. recognize the school and give it accreditation???
That is a big leap. pre-recognition of prior learning needs to be set at a certain levels of academic study. Whilst some universities will use this as a carrot to attract and encourage students into programs, intellectual integrity demands creditation at the appropriate level. To do otherwise would introduce academic creep (dilution of academe), which is a dirty word in higher education.
As arough guide, first year university is at A level standard and second year there is an empahsis away from the practical to the theoretical constructs which favour the enquiring mind with much less empahisis placed on rote learning and more on deep and meaningful learning. This can frustrate many capable students who have the knoweldge at their finger tips but are unable to analyse and sythesise the information. Year three is a consolidation year in most curriculum where the complete patient care is emphaised, and year four is a year of reflection (or evaluation) where the students transcends to become the practitioner. Tears three and four are often spent outside the university on placement in podiatry but traditionally year one and two are where the student spends quality time in "in house" training clinical facilities developing sub skills to establish base line competencies.
Traditonally podiatry (clinical) education has been seen as a three/four tear level of development and skipping into year two, without completing year one has been a rare event. Most programs in the UK will set the first year of the podiatry clinical program at the level of a foot care assistant. It will be necessary to get an equivolence between existing FHPs and FCA courses befoe a decision can be made to accept both into year two. In terms of equity universities would be bound to offer the same entry (if apprioved ) to FCA. The universities will not discriminate between the two because the bigger the pool to draw from the more 'bums on seats', and money in the university's bank. Univerisities are businesses and need to consider pounds and pence, just like another business. The university management is committed to use the existing resources they have available to them and are forging generic courses particularly for the vocational degrees. This has been directed by funding from Government agencies, keen to recruit.
The new move in undergraduate programs (UK) appears to favour greater flexibility in study with part time participation at a premium. Utilisation of Open and Distance Learning gives structure to the new proposed programs but it remains untested as to the reaction of HPC to these initiatives when it comes to undergaraduate podiatry education. Although some of the existing schoosl do operate part time study the clinical commitment is something like three days per week at a central clinical education facility. It is not clear yet what the new programs from other universities will put forward and hence these still need to be validated by HPC. They will work to the 1000 hours of clinical education and the QAA objectives.
>Could this be the unforeseen BACK-DOOR? A way to further promotion from FHP. to Chiropodist in the future? A new route for FHP.'s onto the Register of Chiropodists/Podiatrist in say three or four years!
That would be one way of looking at the situation. The Government are determined to increase the number of recognised health professionals available and this has changed the goalposts on a global scale. The real political agenda (as I see it) is to reduce the power base of the exisiting professional bodies and create a Health Care Professional who can then specialise (by distance/Open Learning) into areas of professional care such as nursing, medicine, pharmacology, dentisty, podiatry and physiotherapy etc, etc, etc. . Thatcher's promise of smashing the trade unions (including the prsfessions) has become a Labour reality.
Is there a problem with this?
Depends which side of the fence you sit on. Is the face of podiatry changing in the UK , definately yes. Are the podiatrists in charge of their own destiny now? Probably not. What can be done about it all? As Mark Russell and consolidate.
Still I think I may have detected a quiet interest in doing just what you have described above allowing FHP.'s the hope of translation into degree standard thus the carrot of the registered chiropodist?
To be honest Colin, I can see it going the other way too. Where foot care professionals are trained in the non university sector. Believe it or not the universities have never been comfortable with training in vocational degrees (UK) and whilst these have been popular programs changing demographics have seen media and programing overtake. I think we might see in the UK what is happening in Australia with technical colleges (TAFEs) taking back vocational training. These colleges are better resourced than universities and programs which gaurentee high employment prospects for graduates become flagships. The universites would then offer top ups at post graduate level. Me thinks there are a lot of chages coming most of which will be outwith the professions immediate control.
I think that your reasoned position is quite probably going to be the end product here on this one!
I recently have experience of my local city college offering a plumbing ONC. free because of the shortage of plumbers here! Not quite what we have in mind for FHP's but vocational in every sense with real jobs at the end of the course offered!
It will be interesting to watch whether nine Uni. Schools turning out approx. 200 new Podiatrists a year will be able to compete with FHP. School volumes, although I think I may have wandered away from your point a little with this last one.
Podiatry Registration by the Back-door, Perhaps?
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