UWA Handbook 2025

Unit Overview

Description

This practicum unit focuses on pre-operative patient management and surgical planning based on clinical findings. During the practicum students will provide mentorship to general podiatry students as they attend surgical clinics as part of their training. Students are expected to attend hospitals and assist primary surgeons as well as perform basic surgical skills such as wart curettage, ingrown nail procedures, incision planning, soft tissue dissecting, wound closure and introduction to osseous procedures. In additions, students will develop their communication skills through various methods such as oral case presentations to their peers, reflective logbooks, written assignments as well as patient interaction and communication with various healthcare professionals. This unit continues to build on the therapeutic concepts taught in the foundations units of the course and aims to expose students to various clinical scenarios where therapeutic management is safely implemented.

Credit

6 points

Offering
(see Timetable)

Availability	Location	Mode
Semester 1	UWA (Perth)	Face to face

Outcomes

Students are able to (1) identify peri-operative management at a novice level.; (2) recognise pre-operative findings to develop a patient-centred surgical plan, with evidence-based clinical reasoning, including a provisional and differential clinical diagnoses.

; (3) recognise accurate patient records and competence in communication with the patient, healthcare team, surgical team and peers in accordance with legislative and regulatory requirements of the communicating for safety standard in the NSQHS standards.; (4) identify and demonstrate all tasks (with supervision) of safe operating room protocols/etiquette, the roll of a surgical assistant at an advanced beginner level, the safe use of injectable medicines and perform basic surgical skills with introduction to osseous procedures.; (5) recognise safe therapeutic management of patients in line with legislative and regulatory requirements of the medication safety standards and Quality Use of Medicines.; (6) demonstrate reflective practice and understanding limits of competence and scope of practice at a novice level.; (7) display professional behaviour in the education and clinical setting (including using cultural safety with an emphasis on Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander individuals, families and communities); and (8) apply and demonstrate AO fixation techniques including appropriate selection of hardware at an advanced beginner level.

Assessment

Indicative assessments in this unit are as follows: (1) assignment/s; (2) clinical assessment/s; (3) written assessment/s; and (4) professional behaviour assessment/s. Further information is available in the unit outline.

To pass this unit, a student must: (a) achieve an overall mark of 50 per cent or higher for the unit; and (b) achieve the requisite requirements(s) or a mark of 50 per cent or greater, whichever is higher and specified in the unit outline, for the clinical assessment/s, written assessment/s, and professional behaviour assessment/s components.

Student may be offered supplementary assessment in this unit if they meet the eligibility criteria.

Unit Coordinator(s)

Dr Jamie Weaver

Unit rules

Prerequisites

Enrolment in

the Doctor of Podiatric Surgery (91830)
and PODI5511 Foundations of Podiatric Surgery 1 (ID 3775) PODI5512 Foundations of Podiatric Surgery 2 (ID 3776) PODI5513 Concepts of Podiatric Surgery (ID 3777) PODI5514 Podiatric Medicine Practicum (ID 3778) PODI5515 Introduction to surgical skills (ID3779) PODI6531 Surgical Practicum 1A (ID 3787)

Co-requisites

PODI6572 Podiatric Research 2 (ID 7930)

Contact hours

Clinical placement: ~100 hours / semester

Texts

McGlamry’s foot and ankle surgery, 5th edition [Authors: Brian Carpenter. Editors: Michelle L. Butterworth, William D. Fishco, John T. Marcoux, Daniel F. Vickers, Ovid Technologies Inc.]

McGlamry’s comprehensive textbook of foot and ankle surgery, 4th Edition. [Authors: E. Dalton McGlamry, Joe T. Southerland]

The Foot and Ankle: Master Techniques in Podiatric Surgery, 1st Edition. [Author: Thomas K. Chang]

Foot and Ankle. 2nd Edition. [Author: David Thordarson]