Graduating School of Podiatric Medicine student Jennifer Mulhern likes to plan — but she also knows to trust her instincts.

When she began her undergraduate education at Marywood University, for example, she intended to be an elementary school teacher. But after beginning the program, she discovered that while she liked teaching, she didn’t love it. So she switched to biology education and found something she does love: podiatry. She graduated with a degree in biology and a minor in secondary education.

“I considered medicine before I started undergraduate, but I didn’t know what avenue I wanted to focus on,” she said. “After I shadowed doctors with a couple different specialties I just fell in love with podiatry.”

Mulhern began her podiatry education at Temple in 2007, and after beginning work with patients, found that her instincts had been right.

“One of the things that I really like about podiatric medicine is that our patients come to us in pain and when they leave, 85 percent feel better immediately,” she said.

Mulhern said that her working style has evolved over time at Temple, and credits her professors with helping shape her approach to her patients.

“I just had to kind of learn by doing during clinical training,” she said. “Every patient is different and every clinician is different and every patient has a different attitude or a different outlook on things. So the most important thing is to be yourself.”

Putting her educational training to use, Mulhern tries to help her patients understand their conditions and how they can take better care of themselves. She writes two blogs — one personal and one professional — to educate the public about foot care. She covers podiatric subjects that people deal with day-to-day, such as pedicure protocol, new “toning” sneakers, preventing and treating gout and heel pain and general footcare advice.

“I try to blog about things that might affect my audience rather than things that are really technical that I would learn in school,” she said.

Mulhern is grateful for the camaraderie among her classmates that has helped her navigate the rigor of classes, clinical work and online studies.

“We work really well together,” she said. “We study together, we see patients together. When we need help, everyone is there. It’s really held everything together.”

Mulhern now looks forward to beginning a new chapter in her podiatric training. In July, she will begin her residency at Community Medical Center in Scranton, Pa., where she will complete three years of foot and ankle surgical training.

— Elizabeth DiPardo