Podiatry, Occupational Therapy, Dental Nursing, or Support Worker. What should I do?

[Laidir87]

I am hopefully going to be retraining next year. I was thinking about Podiatry, Occupational Therapy, Dental Nurse, or Support Worker/Link Worker/Homeless Worker.

They are all different degrees though, so I’m trying to work out which to choose.

Can anyone who works in any of these roles tell me what it’s like please?

I cannot lift heavy objects again (more than 5kg) due to a surgery so maybe that will disqualify me from some? Currently I’m Admin and Reception for a Social Care based charity, and I love making a difference in people’s lives, but I’m not very creative or outgoing and I’m quite methodical.

Podiatry has lovely sociable clinical hours

Not dental if you're chatty.

Support worker pay doesn’t tend to be great and dental nurse is similar. Podiatry can be lucrative as you have option to take on private clients.

Certainly not support worker/link worker/homeless worker. It is badly paid and the clients have complex needs which make them really volatile.

I have worked for two homelessness charities and seen a high staff turnover and staff being attacked by the people they are here to help. It is sad but true.

I would go for podiatry or occupational therapy or you might also think of social prescribing.

As an OT, you might be doing manual handling. If 5kg is your lifting limit, I’d probably not do that.
I assume podiatrists might need to lift heavy, swollen legs often too.

I'd say Podiatry gives you the greatest potential for earning and improving people's lives, compared to the others.

Thanks everyone for the insight. I have a feeling that OT and podiatry may be out as I really couldn't do the manual lifting (it risks undoing my surgery). Which is a shame as podiatry in particular appeals to me. Can anyone chime in who does either of these jobs regards if heavy lifting is involved?

@Greenartywitch Yes I have heard that about homelessness work. Reason I was considering it is that I currently work in a similar environment, but not directly in a support worker role. How would I get into Social Prescribing please?

I'm not actually too bothered about pay, I have quite low outgoings. I value job security, regular hours, and the restriction on lifting. I want to leave Admin because I'd like to more directly help people, and concerned about AI.

I’m not an OT but work with them. When you’re a band 5 on rotation (and student), you’ll almost certainly have ‘heavy’ patients such as post stroke and need full support for mobilisation and ADLs which is a big part of OT. I’m sure there are areas you can go into where it is much lighter but you’d have to get through the early years first.