The journey back: how Colette successfully returned to her orthotist career

Returning to my career in orthotics

Hello, I'm Colette, and it took me 6 months to complete the return to practice process.

What was returning to practice as an orthotist really like?

At the beginning of the Return to Practice process, I was quite nervous. There were lots of forms to fill out, and many things had changed due to COVID. As a result, much of my return to practice activities were done virtually.

The impact of the pandemic

With COVID impacting education, there wasn’t a lot of formal study available at the time. Being an orthotist, I found it challenging to find relevant formal study opportunities. Therefore, I relied heavily on learning resources on the Turas Learn platform, and I took part in lots of supervised practice.

Supervised placements and study time

While on placement, I had specific virtual clinics booked, and my supervisor would sit in on them with me. I also did what we call our ACRT process, which is Advanced Clinical Referral Triage. This means making clinical decisions on referrals before they even make it into the clinic. I would discuss them with my supervisor to make sure that we agreed on my clinical decisions.

I also had time set aside for private study and some formal study when appropriate.

Re-registering with the Health and Care Professions Council

After re-registering with the Health and Care Professions Council (HCPC), I went back to the job I'd been in previously. I had lots of support from my team.

My advice for anyone thinking about returning to practice as an AHP

The advice I would give to anybody thinking about returning to practice is that it's not as scary as it looks. It's actually very easy to do. A lot of people in the NHS, social care, and private practice want qualified AHPs to come back, so it's worthwhile.