Celebrating Prosthetists and Orthotists Awareness Day

6 September 2024

Today is National Prosthetics and Orthotics Day!

Here at DCH we are celebrating our award-winning orthotics team.

Orthotics is a specialist branch of healthcare that creates personalised external devices to enable patients to walk, recover from injury and reduce pain. The team use extensive knowledge of the human body and unique engineering skills to assess patients and design a solution that is individual to the patient.

Hear from some of our team ...

Nikki Green, Orthotist and Service Lead for Orthotics, Hand Therapy and Podiatry at Dorset County Hospital: "Working at DCH I have amazing colleagues and I am proud of the fantastic work the team do every day. I am so lucky to have found this career in the NHS."

Orthotist Matthew Wood: "I’ve been working as an Orthotist at Dorset County Hospital for almost five years, having moved back down to my home county after studying in Salford.

"I’ve had the opportunity to develop my clinical specialism by learning more about diabetic foot complications from experienced colleagues. Outside of the clinic room, I’ve also had the chance to develop skills in leadership through the Active Hospitals project, and research through National Institute for Healthcare Research (NIHR) Internships.

"For the last six months I’ve been on an NIHR Statistical Analysis internship to better understand research principles, with my eventual goal of using this knowledge to feed into further P&O research."

Senior Orthotist Matt Pearson: "I enjoy working with children and adults to help them with activities that are important to them. I also enjoy collaborating and learning from colleagues in other disciplines.

"I used to be a secondary school teacher before retraining and I love that I can still use a lot of the skills I developed in my previous career both day to day in clinical practice and also in the part-time role I have as part of the teaching team at Derby University, where students can study a degree apprenticeship and become a Prosthetist and Orthotist. It has been really exciting to be involved with the development of a new training route through apprenticeships in Prosthetics and Orthotics."

Juliet Sturgess is our Associate Director for the Allied Health Professions (AHP) here at Dorset County Hospital: "It is my absolute privilege to have oversight of 11 clinical professions from the AHP group of professions. Today, for National Prosthetics and Orthotics Day, I wish to shine a light on our smallest profession.

"My own clinical background is in Prosthetics and Orthotics and I have enjoyed a 20+ year career seeing continuously the difference that Orthotists make to the lives of our patients.

"Whilst a career in Prosthetics and Orthotics is rarely heard about, I feel it is one of the most rewarding careers with so many employment options as you are trained as an Orthotist and a Prosthetist.

"I am really enjoying watching the Paralympics and see so many of the athletes benefitting from the work of prosthetists and orthotists.

"Level 3 and Level 6 Degree apprenticeships are now available nationally through the
University of Derby."

For more careers information visit the British Association of Prosthetists and Orthotists website.