Foot care on the go
Pair of Richmond nurses offer medical treatment for your ailing feet, right in your home
Philip Raphael, Staff Reporter
Got a problem with your heart, make an appointment to see a heart specialist. Need some help with a sore back, go to a chiropractor.
Experiencing some nagging problems with your poor old feet?
Well, you'll deal with that yourself, when you get around to it, right?
That's the scenario played out by many people who give their feet the brush off instead of getting proper care.
But thanks to a new service, professional medical attention to those painful callouses, in-grown toenails, or more serious problems like poor circulation and feeling due to diabetes, can walk right through your front door because a pair of Richmond nurses are offering in-home foot treatments.
And it is starting to catch on, especially since waits to see a foot specialist (podiatrist) can be as long as eight weeks, and a foot care nurse like Michelle Jackson or Shamim Murji can be on your doorstep literally the next day.
Started in September, Jackson's M.J. Footcare, and Murji's Shmamim's Foot Care Clinic provide professional treatment and advice that goes beyond just keeping a pair of feet looking their best.
"It's not about pedicures," explains Jackson, who has been a registered nurse since 1965, and has spent the last seven years working with patients at Minoru Extended Care facility. "It's about proper care for your feet, which a lot of people tend to overlook."
"For some reason or another, people don't seem to take the extra effort to take care of their feet," adds Murji. "For some of our older clients, perhaps it's a question of mobility...Now, we can come out right to their homes."
For Jackson, starting the service was a way of charting a new career path. Knowing that her position was being phased out and replaced by staff with licenced practical nurse qualifications, Jackson decided to seek another line of work that would take her extensive medical experience, and work with the elderly, into account.
And she found it when she came across the Foot Care Course offered by the Victorian Order of Nurses, a four-day program that teaches how to assess a patient's condition and recognize certain problems.
"We see some pretty horrible things out there because people have spent a good part of their lives wearing shoes that are probably too small for them, or living with things like callouses, corns, or simply haven't had their toenails trimmed properly in quite a long time," Jackson says. "Many of the conditions we find people in could have been prevented if they had looked after their feet properly at the beginning."
Tools of the trade include special burrs, and even a hand-held power grinder like a Dremel tool fitted with a special foot care disc, to help quickly and easily remove built up layers of skin.
"Some clients I see have callouses that are half an inch thick, and with the special training we have, a foot nurse can take that down gradually," she explains.
In more serious conditions, like those brought on by diabetes, prompt medical attention from a foot care nurse can head off potentially dire consequences.
Jackson says when diabetes patients lose proper circulation and feeling in their feet, even slight foot discomfort due to ill-fitting shoes, or even socks, can create dangers.
"Damage can be done sometimes just by wearing the wrong type of shoes, or even socks with seams that put pressure on parts of their feet."
While they are prevented from any type of invasive procedures, Jackson and Murji said they can tell clients what problems to look for that may require the hand of a specialist.
"We want the (clients) to be well-educated on the health of their feet," Murji says.
Aside from the hands-on treatment during their home visits, Jackson and Murji can also help customers dispel some foot care fallacies, such as putting moisturizing cream between their toes, which is a big "no-no," Jackson says, because it can provide the perfect habitat nurture and spread harmful bacteria.
One of the most common conditions they see is a fungal infection that can get under the nail bed of the toe and discolour the nail. Proper foot cleansing techniques to inhibit the fungus spread are provided, and, "We can teach them to treat themselves by making a solution of water and either Dettol or Pine-Sol, soaking a rag in it, and then placing the rag in their shoes overnight to help kill off any further fungus problems," Jackson says.
The treatments are not covered by B.C.'s Medical Services Plan, and cost clients $35 for the initial visit which includes getting a complete medical history. Subsequent sessions are $30 each.
"You can't even get a plumber come out to your house for that," Jackson quips.
So far, the clients span most age groups and walks of life.
"What we're finding is that people don't know that this type of service exists. But when they do, they are very thankful," Jackson says.
The trend for foot treatment specialists is more commonplace in Victoria where a larger retirement age population has given rise to as many as 30 full-time foot care nurses in that city. In the Lower Mainland, White Rock, with its large retirement age base, has spawned a small group of foot care nurses with whom Jackson and Murji hope to strike an informal alliance.
But the ultimate plan is to establish a stand alone foot clinic where clients could visit on a regular basis.
Until then, Jackson said she will work on the goal one foot at a time.
nFor more information on foot care, call M.J. Foot Care at 604-340-3916 or Shamim's Foot Care Clinic at 604-218-4220.
