Complete 43 page APA formatted essay: Professional Practice in Podiatry Care.Download file to see previous pages... The aim of this study is to have a permanent record of learning whilst expanding exp

Complete 43 page APA formatted essay: Professional Practice in Podiatry Care.

The aim of this study is to have a permanent record of learning whilst expanding expertise in diagnostic and therapeutic Podiatry in order to develop knowledge and practices, and to ensure the best possible care to patients by practicing as a competent professional continually identifying gaps in personal knowledge and fulfilling them with subsequent learning.

An extensive literature search was conducted using databases that included the Cochrane library, CINAHL, EMBASE, Medline, Google, and Science Direct. Numerous referenced texts have also been used to research this assignment.

This activity aims to critically reflect on significance within Podiatry care the ethical and professional issues surrounding the management of people living with foot morbidity. The assessment of the presence or absence of various signs and symptoms within Podiatry crosses into many other medical disciplines such as orthopaedics, neurology, sport medicine and rheumatology. Nevertheless podiatry has specific approach to the diagnostics and data collection and though it is mostly more holistic than other fields of traditional health care (Barnett, et al 2005. Curran, Dananberg, 2005. Thompson et al., 2005).

All signs occurring in foot diseases can be divided into two groups: subjective (complaints) and objective (visible or detectable by physical examination). The most common symptoms amongst patients with podiatric pathology are presented by pain, feelings of numbness, burning, tingling and other manifestations (Curran, Dananberg, 2005). Caselli and George (2003) suggest patients can experience limitation of movement in the joints. Some diseases are characterised with the inflammatory or atrophic changes of skin and deformations of the foot. For example, the condition called "pes cavus" has the deformity of the foot due to a fixed plantar flexion. Another example of foot deformation is flat feet (Connors et al., 1998). These are all plainly manifest foot conditions and can be subsequently subjectively assessed upon patient interview.

However, there are some podiatric disorders that have not only local manifestations but also can seriously influence on the common well-being of the patient through more obscure manifestations that are not easily detectable subjectively. For example, pain in the lower limbs can lead to cardiovascular problems and depression (Abramson, 1985. Udell, Weiss, 1998).