You're right about opportunity Ed.

You talk about opportunity in the profession and say that you are moderately successful and so are others, well that's nice. Maybe I'm not as successful as you and maybe not as happy with the profession as you. But I tell Amanda and all others to stay away from chiropody and podiatry because of all the sad stories that I have heard and situations that have happened to me.

Here are some opportunities that I had and because of unfettered competiton they disappeared. Shortly after I graduated, I provided chiropody care at a nursing home, I was the first chiropodist there and everyone was grateful. Well within a year, I was phoned and informed that the nursing home had received an offer it couldn't refuse: a provincially funded chiropodist would show up at the nursing home and provide free foot care. It turned out that the residents who were paying $1,500-$3,000/month were unable to afford my $10 fee and pay for 6 treatments/year. A few years later the funding disappeared and the chiropodist stayed on and the residents can now afford to pay $20/treatment. Although I was the first chiropodist there, the other chiropodist was kept on to provide the fee for service position. At another nursing home, RPNs were sent to a foot care course taught by chiropodists (probably at the Michener by salaried chiropodists, of course (this course is not taught any more)) and were certified as nursing foot specialists so they replaced my services and now charge $25/treatment compared to my $10/treatment. Nice opportunities, eh Ed?

Not only that, but in my neighbourhood I also had competition from a chiropodist working in a funded position elsewhere, he set up part-time and was undercutting my fees by $10/treatment and probably was charging much less than I was for orthotics. At a senior's only building there's a public health nurse working there M-F, 8-5, after work she goes apartment to apartment and charges $10/treatment and does 4 or 5 per day, so if you want to work there undercut her fee by $5 and you'll get the job --let's see now you will do 3 or 4 treatments in the resident's apartments per hour and so you will make about $15-$20/hour, a REAL OPPORTUNITY FOLKS!. At another nursing home, I found out the the Director of Patient Care was promoted to Assistant Nursing Home Administrator and so I was going to apply for the position. Why not I thought? I have a university degree and a Diploma in Chiropody from the MICHNER wow!!!! I was told that the position was only open to RNs bec if an RN didn't show up to work then the Director of Patient Care would have to work as a nurse if no regular staff replacements could be obtained for the shift bec the nursing home couldn't afford agency nurses. So I didn't apply. The nurse that got the job had a 2 year nursing diploma. So get this...despite the 7 years of education post Grade 12 compared to the nurse's 2 years after Grade 12 she got the job. And in 5 or 10 years she will be able to move on to Assitant Adminstrator. How's that for opportunity for a nurse and NO OPPORTUNITY for a chiropodist.

Quite frankly, if I was to do it again, I would go into nursing. Nurses can become nursing foot specialists, nurse practioners, midwives and will soon have the opportuntiy to train to become nurse anesthesiologists. Chiropodists, on the other hand, have had and will have limited opportunities and face stiff competition and if they are lucky, will be moderately successful like you.

That's why Peter George Wilson,SRCh, (to you, the reader, if you don't know who I'm referring to, look it up on the cocoo website under Discipline Decisions http://www.cocoo.on.ca/pdfs/discipline-wilson.pdf ) did what he did, he knew that there were very limited opportunities for chiropodists, so he stole enough money for himself to have a nice nest egg, instead of setting up a part time private chiropody practise back in 1982 when he became an instructor at Toronto General Hospital. According to the decision, he filed for bankruptcy in 1993. Hey there's your proof of moderate success in chiropody. And something that applies, "actions speak louder than words" and this is true for all chiropodists who looked to their leader to set a fine and superb example of success (and excess).