More than toenails and callouses
Name: Michelle Hansen
Job: Owner and podiatrist at Simply Feet, Oamaru
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What jobs did you do before this one? I went straight from high school to study podiatry so this has been my main career. However, I have spent six months in Africa doing aid work and time in Europe doing youth work. Both experiences that have significantly shaped my view of the importance of contributing to your local community with whatever talents you may have.
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Why did you choose this job? I was a volleyball player and attended Sportsmed in Christchurch for a severe foot injury. That was my first introduction to the podiatry profession and I was captivated by the mechanics of how the foot and ankle worked and how podiatry was so helpful. I pursued the career because it felt like a fit for combining my love of sport while doing something where I could really help people.
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What qualifications and training did you need? From school I headed straight to university to complete a threeyear degree in a bachelor of health science in podiatry. The degree was very specialised and focused on health and medicine for the foot, ankle and lower limb.
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What personal skills do you need? Good reasoning skills — being able to apply the principles of science to arrive at a diagnosis and then develop a treatment plan. Interpersonal skills — an ability to relate well to people, talking in a way that patients can understand and being a good listener. An ability
to focus on details as a patient’s health and medical history are important, and noticing signs and symptoms. Writing well — keeping clinical notes and reporting to other health professionals. Most of all, really caring for people, and smiling always helps.
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Any physical requirements? Good, fine dexterity skills as podiatrists are qualified to perform nail and verrucae surgery and it is always a bonus in any occupation to stay fit, healthy and move well.
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What do you do on a daily basis? I work as both a practitioner (a podiatrist) and as a business owner which means I pay staff salaries, run our Xero accounting software and do a lot of the business back end plus working in a clinical aspect seeing patients on a daily basis.
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What is the most challenging aspect? Achieving my goal of trying to fix any problem that comes in the door. I am always looking at ways of how we can help with lower limb health for our patients and as we are a private practice we don’t get any public funding. We are experts in lower limb health and we want to deliver the highest level care possible and keep our services affordable.
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Are there any particular health and safety issues? We use a specialised bench grinder for making customised foot inserts (orthotics) and I learnt early on in my career that long ponytails can get caught easily. This one day my ponytail got caught in the grinding machine and luckily the grinder wasn’t attached to the work bench and I ended up on the floor with a grinding machine attached to my head. Sort of horrifying but I could see the funny side afterwards. I was very lucky. Fortunately, the patient had no idea so I had to straighten up and finish the consultation while feeling a little shaken.
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What is the most interesting assignment you’ve had? Every day is surprisingly interesting because each person is unique and we get a wide variety of cases presenting. Even though we are quite a focused profession, we get a huge variety of lower limb health complaints coming in the door.
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How has the job changed since you started? When I trained, podiatry was a profession finding its identity. Podiatry now has a much stronger sense of what the profession can offer in terms of lower limb health and the training today reflects that. Podiatrists today have extensive knowledge in lower limb biomechanics, wound care, uptodate surgical skills, general medical knowledge, walking and running assessment, postsurgical rehabilitation, injury prevention and rehabilitation, and we are licensed to take and read Xrays.
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What’s something people generally don’t know about the job? People generally don’t realise how extensive our scope of practice is as podiatrists. Most people know we can do an amazing job fixing thick toenails and corns and callouses but they don’t know we can order Xrays and ultrasounds, that we refer people to specialists such as neurology, rheumatology and orthopaedic surgeons, that we use the latest 3D scanning technology to make prescription orthotics, or that ACC has recently teamed up with Simply Feet Podiatry allowing us to help rehabilitate ACC injuries by providing ankle braces, moon boots and orthotics at either no cost or a subsidised cost to the patient.
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What are the highs of the job?
Seeing people’s mobility improve, whether it is a child with pigeontoed walking that we help so they can run and jump without tripping; improving the balance and mobility of an elderly person so they can continue walking their dog; or keeping an athlete in action with injury rehabilitation so they can go to the world championships. I also enjoy seeing dermatology (skin) cases resolved.
Podiatry is unique because people attend our clinic for regular routine foot care so we have the opportunity to build a strong rapport with patients. I love that side of the work.
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What is the salary?
Salary greatly varies depending on skill levels and how many patients you see! So anywhere between $40,000 to $120,000.
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Where will you be 10 years from now? I am not such a good strategist. I prefer to keep life organic and enjoy what each day brings.