What Are The Skills Needed To Become An Osteopath?
If you’re considering a career in healthcare – and a role where you can make a huge difference in the health and wellbeing of your patients – osteopathy could be the perfect path.
Why choose osteopathy?
Osteopathy offers a holistic approach to addressing a wide range of health issues. Unlike conventional medicine, which often focuses solely on treating symptoms in isolation, osteopathy considers the body as a unified system, addressing the root causes of illness to promote overall well-being.
Osteopathy is a hands-on, patient-focused profession built on the principles of holistic health. This means that trained osteopaths look at the body as a whole, including their lifestyle, habits and overall physical health.
As a growing field, and one that’s recognised as an Allied Health Profession (AHP) by the NHS, osteopathy is an immensely satisfying, rewarding and stable career.
If you’re ready to find out more, read on to learn about some of the most important skills needed to become a successful osteopath.
Empathy and communication
These two skills are necessary in almost all professions, but in healthcare it’s particularly important to be able to communicate as clearly and compassionately as possible. You’ll work closely with people from a huge range of backgrounds, often at vulnerable moments in their lives. Being able to listen with empathy, understand their concerns, and explain treatment plans clearly is so important.
Problem solving
Another skill that’s hugely important in the field of osteopathy is problem solving.
As an osteopath, at times you will be working as a ‘pain detective’. You’ll need to analyse symptoms, identify patterns, and determine the root causes of pain or dysfunction – which often lie far from where the patient is experiencing discomfort.
That’s why osteopathy training is more than anatomy and physiology; it’s about developing your problem solving skills, and ability to think critically and holistically.
At the London School of Osteopathy (LSO), our study pathways are designed to challenge and refine your diagnostic skills, giving you the confidence to make sound clinical judgments.
Personal and professional development
Starting with study skills, you will begin your learning journey being informed about the process of learning. Techniques to self-audit, including reflective practice, ensure that you accelerate your progress, and can take control of your professional development. This ultimately leads to your goal of becoming an autonomous practitioner.
Manual dexterity
Osteopathy is a hands-on profession. Through an osteopathy degree, you’ll need the coordination and dexterity to perform physical manipulations and techniques safely and effectively. The role can sometimes be physically demanding. You’ll be standing, moving, and using your hands for a lot of the day.
With hundreds of hours of practical training built into both the BOst and MOst degree pathways, LSO ensures that you build the dexterity, control, and precision needed to treat patients with confidence.
Medical knowledge
If you don’t have a background in human biology before you start your osteopathy degree, don’t worry. Once you finish your degree, you’ll be leaving with a strong understanding of anatomy, physiology, clinical pathology, differential diagnosis, psychosocial and nutritional factors, and research studies alongside your osteopathic training.
Understanding how the body works as a whole forms the backbone of osteopathic practice, so your degree will give you an extensive range of necessary medical knowledge.
Training in osteopathy
Are you intrigued about becoming an osteopath?
An Osteopathy degree takes between 3.5 and 4 years to complete on a full-time basis. However, you can also study with the London School of Osteopathy on a flexible and part-time basis, which will take 5 years to complete.
Whether you’re changing careers, or just starting out, we welcome students from all walks of life. With hands-on learning and patient interaction, our college offers the ideal environment for you to grow both personally and professionally. If you want to find out more about becoming an osteopath, or want to speak to our team about what our degrees entail, please don’t hesitate to contact us today.
The post What skills are needed to become an osteopath first appeared on LSO.
The post What skills are needed to become an osteopath appeared first on LSO.
