Department of Podiatry

Course Outline

The Bachelor degree of Podiatry is a four year course at the Bundoora campus, La Trobe University. The academic year is divided into two semesters with sixty credit points of academic study per semester. Students must attain 480 credit points of academic study to be awarded the pass or honours degree. Students in the fourth year are divided into a pass stream and a honours degree stream.

The course utilizes both a modular and spiral teaching structure and philosophy. Certain subject areas such as biomechanics, orthotic practice, clinical practice, research methods and podiatric medicine use a spiral teaching method where the subject is taught in the first or second year of the course and then again at a higher level in the latter years. Students must apply knowledge and concepts learnt in the earlier part of the course to more advanced and complex clinical and theoretical situations in the latter part of the course.

The first year of the course is centered on normal structure and function of the human body with particular emphasis to the lower limb. Students are also introduced to behavioural and social sciences at the tertiary level. These subjects help lay the foundations for further studies in podiatric practice. Although students do not actually treat patients in the first year they are introduced to clinical practice in the subjects pre-clinical podiatry and podiatric clinical skills. They also begin their study of specific pathologies of the lower limb in podiatric biomechanics and podiatric dermatology.

In the second year of the course students are introduced to abnormal structure and function of the human body with particular emphasis on the lower limb. The principles and advanced procedures of podiatric assessment and management help underpin the clinical training during the second year, where students treat patients with varied health related problems. Students are also introduced to pharmacology as it applies to systemic disease, microbiology and anaesthesia.

The central focus of the third year is to enhance the clinical skills and professional practice of the students and to introduce the assessment and management of more complex patient groups such as those patients considered to be “at risk”. This is achieved through the academic study of podiatric medicine, two pharmacology subjects, and internal and external clinical practice. Students are also introduced to two main areas of the fourth year in podiatric surgery and podiatric specialisations.

The fourth year aims to complete the development of the competent entry level practitioner. This is achieved through extensive internal and external clinical placements incorporating specialist areas such as podiatric surgery, sports podiatry and podo-paediatrics. The honours stream also offers students with high academic ability and an aptitude for research the opportunity to undertake an extensive research project within an area related to podiatry.

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Content Approved by: Head of Podiatry
Page maintained by: Podiatry Webmaster
Last Updated: August 20th, 2002