Hands to the occupational therapists and feet to the podiatrists.

How many patients have you referred out because of that belief?
I guess one of the reasons is that as physiotherapist students, we're always taught to look at the joints which are more 'important'/ commonly suffering from dysfunctions. Ironically, its common to see dysfunctions in the smallest joints and somehow, the contents gets more and more dry as it goes more distal in the peripherals. So it ends up as hands to the occupational therapists and feet to the podiatrists as they're experts in those fields.
Not to say that its wrong to refer patients out but never underestimate what we can do as physiotherapists.
I mean, how much difference can there be between PTs, OTs and Podiatrists?
Shouldn't we as physiotherapists be well versed in the biomechanics of all joints and the anatomy of the human body?
Surely the podiatrist have more knowledge in terms of feet pathology, prescribing orthotics, etc.
But end of the day, principles remain the same regardless of body parts.
Muscles, tendons, ligaments, nerves and blood vessels all work more or less the same way throughout our body. As long as we take the time to appreciate the biomechanics and anatomy of the hands and the feet, even PTs can provide rehabilitation for patients with hands/feet dysfunction.
Well, the human body is indeed a complicated structure to comprehend and different people might have their own interest in a particular part of the body.
But at the end of the day, I believe that all of us are all genuine to our patients and we should be able to answer the question that lies after we see the patient - "Have we done all we can for them?"
Well, there's always more knowledge to be attained and more secrets of the human body to be uncovered.
Kudos to all healthcare professionals and may your passion in your career remain burning as strong as it will be till the end of time.