Nursing Foot Care
What is a foot care nurse?
A foot care nurse is a licensed or registered nurse who has taken additional education and training in the lower limb who can complete basic, advanced, and diabetic foot care.
Foot care nurses work along side other medical professionals such as your family doctor, a podiatrist (a doctor who specializes in feet), pedorthists (an allied health professional who specialize in the design, fit, and modification of custom-made orthotics, orthopaedic footwear, and braces), diabetic clinics, wound care nurses, and many more to help keep a person mobile and decreased the risk of developing complications.
Cost:
We charge $75.00 for home visits and $65.00 for clinic visits.
The cost of this service in HRM ranges from 60-115$ per service depending on the provider and service location. It is important to check if you have private health insurance to see if you qualify for reimbursement of your nursing foot care services. Good questions to ask your insurance company are, how often can I have foot care services covered, how much of the service is covered, are there any restrictions on providers (in home versus clinic, and LPN versus RN). If you don’t have private coverage we offer year end receipts to use to claim as a medical expense when filing your income tax.
What to expect at your appointment?
- ask for your medical history, what medications you take, and any other important information they may need to treat you (we typically send these out electronically so you have time to provide lots of details in your health history form - if you are unable to fill out electronically, we will go over this with you in person).
- They will obtain your consent to proceed with treatment, this can either be verbal or written. (We typically send this to you in advanced electronically to fill out prior to your appointment and ask any questions you may have).
- Do a full lower limb assessment, this may include checking your pulses, assessing sensation, looking for any abnormalities, and checking blood flow.
- Perform necessary interventions as discussed which can include, corn/callus reduction, ingrown nail treatment, trimming toenails, and any necessary education or referrals.
At each subsequent visit your nurse will:
- ask you how your health has been or if there has been any changes since last visit.
- check your pulses and blood flow.
- Do a focused assessment based on your previous assessments.
- Attend to any problematic issues such as corns, calluses, ingrown nails, long/deformed nails, and/or skin conditions.
- Your services will end with a moisturizer being applied to your lower limbs.
Can you direct bill?
- We can only direct bill for blue cross if you are a veteran with coverage with DVA or VIP.
- We do provide receipts for you to submit back to your insurance company if you have coverage for nursing foot care services.
- We also provide year end receipts for those that do not have private health insurance but would like to claim their foot care as a medical expense for income tax or with the seniors care grant.
What foot care nurses do not do:
- The foot care nurse is not able to go below the first layer of the skin called the epidermis, in this case a referral to a podiatrist (foot doctor) would be recommended.
- Wound care for previous wounds, a referral to your family doctor and a wound care nurse should be made in this scenario.
- Foot soaks and nail painting - this would be part of a cosmetic pedicure - we work with many different aestheticians around HRM, some even provide home care visits if needed. Let us know if the is something you would like more information on.
- Manicures (while we do provide basic fingernail cut and file, we do not work with cuticles or polish).