Can foot care nurses paint nails?

Nurses Entrepreneurs

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I am interested in becoming a certified foot and nail nurse through WOCNB. I notice that most foot nurses do not apply polish for their patients. I understand that it is contraindicated for some conditions but what about those who have healthy nails and want a coat of polish? Of course I am not talking about specialty nail treatments like acrylics or anything like that, just a good natural nail polish. Is this considered outside of practice or just a personal preference? It seems reasonable to apply polish if they desire it since I am working on their feet and I know from personal experience how much better it makes you feel. I intend to market my services to all types of nails, not just badly damaged. I find the conditions in my local nail salons disgusting and would like to help people avoid the dangers that are inherit in that atmosphere! Thanks for your comments :)

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Specializes in Vents, Telemetry, Home Care, Home infusion.

Moved to Foot Care Nursing

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Specializes in Hospice, corrections, psychiatry, rehab, LTC.

I don't see a scope of practice issue. However, I have to wonder about the wisdom of having someone who is providing medical services also offer cosmetic ones. If you are working for an agency and you do this for your patients, you may also be setting up colleagues who do not see this as appropriate or a function of the job. "Well, ImRNJen did it for me."

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No I would be working for myself. If I worked for an agency I would be bound to follow agency rules. I am waiting for my state board of nursing to provide a ruling. It may infringe upon nail technician territory.

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Specializes in Hospice, corrections, psychiatry, rehab, LTC.
No I would be working for myself. If I worked for an agency I would be bound to follow agency rules. I am waiting for my state board of nursing to provide a ruling. It may infringe upon nail technician territory.

My guess is that your nursing board will punt on this, since it isn't a practice issue. Since you just plan to apply polish and not give full pedicures or offer similar services, my guess is that it is not governed by any state laws or regulations. This is something that millions of women do on their own every day.

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I will be giving full medical pedicures once trained. The BON deferred it to my judgement since there are no rules governing foot care nursing in Virginia. As long as it is not contraindicated I have no problem with it.

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Specializes in Hospice, corrections, psychiatry, rehab, LTC.

I thought that this might be their response. Good luck in your new venture.

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I don't think it is a scope of practice issue but I do tend to think it "lessens" the medical aspect of our jobs. I have people ask me all the time for polish and I simply state that this is medically-based nail care and not cosmetic in any way.

Also, from a business standpoint, it would not be cost effective for me. I allow 45 min/client including assessment, foot soak, nail clipping, callus debridement, lotion/massage, sterilizing my equipment and charting. I would never have time for polish/dry time :))

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I have been in business for 20 years and have NEVER painted nails. I do not do anything that can be done by someone else and agree that it lessens our credibility. But I also think that the joy of being in independent practice is that you can do whatever it is that you want!!! and if you enjoy painting nails... then paint them!

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Specializes in NICU/L&D, Hospice.

My only concern with being "allowed" to do it is if you charge for painting nails. You may be charging for something that your state would require you to have a cosmetology license for. You could always buy that great Dani polish and charge for the bottle to get some money back for the time invested.

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In California any kind of toenail care falls under the scope of practice of helping people with "activities of daily living". You certainly can do that is a nurse. And you can certainly charge. I think nail polish is unhealthy for nails, and for me is a waste of my time. But as I have said before if you own your own business, you like painting nails, you do whatever you want to do! That is the joy of being in an independent. You can doublecheck with your board of RN but I do not see any issue at all of this being a cosmetology-based service.

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Specializes in wound care, foot care, seniors health.

I have been doing nursing foot care since 1982 and I have often told my clients that I provide a medical procedure and if they want a receipt for the medical procedure, I need to keep it as such. If they want them painted as well, that would then be aesthetics and I could still give them a receipt but it would not be valid for a medical procedure. I get the response, "I'll let my granddaughter paint them then!" which works for me as I don't allocate the time into an appointment for painting. Only twice in that time have I painted nails and both were for the same woman who had events to attend and she brought her own polish and was willing to forgo the medical procedure receipt as it meant more for her to have her nails painted.If you do decide to paint though, make sure they bring their own polish!

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