Foot care nurses- are you happier?

[wannabeafootcarenurse]

Hello to my colleagues near and far! Long time lurker, first time poster. I would love some opinions from other foot care nurses out there, specifically ones in Canada (as that is where I live) in regards to business aspects etc, but would love general foot care nursing opinions/thoughts/feelings/anything as well!

Background on myself: graduated university with my bachelor of nursing degree, and have been working as an RN in an acute med/surg ward for the past 5 1/2 years. Recently the government has made some lovely changes to our health care system that has resulted in changes that no one is happy with- specifically increased patient ratios, closing of emergency rooms and overall changes that everyone is seeing as being awful when they are fully implemented.

I'm at the end of my rope. I love being a nurse. I love it. I love my patients and everything I do for them. What I don't love is the stress, burnout, and political/managerial issues. These things have always been an issue as to be expected in this line of work, but with the recent and upcoming changes it's just going to get much, much worse. I don't like going in to work being terrified of mandation and seeing my co-workers get mandated. I don't like that I feel sick to my stomach at going into work now as my patient load is larger. I HATE that I can't provide the care that each of my patients deserve. I knew going into nursing that this is all part of the job and I've toughed it out over the years, but now I want a change. I am not happy.

I want to be a foot care nurse. I understand it is a very important area of nursing that doesn't have enough nurses in it, and I like feet! I've thought about it for a long time even prior to these changes and now I'm making the leap. I want to be my own boss. I want to like my job. I'm in the process of taking a 7 month theory and clinical course that will prepare me to care for peoples feet safely, and teach me how to run a small business.

So to the foot care nurses out there... are you happy? Do you have any regrets leaving bedside nursing? Am I making a mistake? I don't think I am... my 'nursing gut' tells me this is the right thing to do and I have been thinking about this very seriously/non-stop for the past two months before I made the decision to apply for the course.

Any and all information would be appreciated.

Kindest regards: A future (hopefully!) foot care nurse