Invitation:
The newly appointed committee of FOOT CARE CANADA would like to take this opportunity to invite any interested foot care nurse, regulatory body, educator and/or policy maker to attend a workshop April 13, 2008 from 9:00 am – 3:15 pm, held at St. Lawrence College in Kingston, Ontario (detailed below). Nurses wishing to be considered as a Provincial /Territorial Advisor should attend this workshop and submit their resume (details attached) and a position statement to the committee for consideration. This workshop will follow a foot care conference on April 11-12th.

How do I register for Foot Care Canada’s workshop on April 13th?
There will be no cost to attend! Updates on this workshop will be posted in the ‘Foot Care Canada’ section, on the following website http://www.cawc.net/open/library/clinical/specialty.html.
Currently, we are a volunteer committee without funding or office support, so if you are interested in attending the April 13th workshop, we kindly ask that you please email your name and contact information directly to our new email address at footcarecanada@yahoo.ca and we’ll look forward to meeting you!  See attached agenda and mission statement.

How do I register for the FOOT CARE CONFERENCE on April 11 – 12th?
Our workshop will follow a local foot care conference in Kingston, Ontario at the Day’s Inn.  To register for the conference contact Linda Heber at hebers@sympatico.ca NEFCA (National Entrepreneurial Foot Care Association of Canada) .

Background:
On April 27^th, 2007 a group of foot care nurses / educators from Ontario and Manitoba met in Kitchener, Ontario prior to the National Entrepreneurial Foot Care Association of Canada's (NEFCA) Annual Spring Conference to discuss the future of Nursing Foot Care and how to begin to introduce the topic of National Foot Care Nurse Guidelines for education and certification. There is also support from other foot care nurses / educators from across Canada who could not attend the meeting. For more information on NEFCA visit http://www.nefca.ca/default.asp or contact Pat MacDonald (Winnipeg, MB) at 1-204-663-1212 pmacdonald@clpnm.ca or Cindy Lazenby (Kingston, ON) at (613) 378-6172 atc_cindy@hotmail.com.  

On September 22, 2007, a group of 60 foot care nurses, educators and managers from across Canada met in Winnipeg, Manitoba to discuss how to introduce national foot care nurse guidelines for skills, education and certification.  All 60 participants supported a draft position statement proposed by an Ad Hoc committee and a consensus was reached to begin the development of a national communication strategy that could reach an estimated 3,000 – 6,000 foot care nurses in Canada. It is understood that this is a huge undertaking, and there are many steps that need to happen in order for the ultimate goal of national guidelines and certification for foot care nurses to occur.