Kristen Garner (left) shares a laugh with customer Marge MacLeod of Osoyoos as she works on her feet. (Richard McGuire photo)
After almost a decade on the front lines of the healthcare system, Kristen Garner was looking for a change, but she also wanted to continue caring for people and making them feel better.
Garner believes she has found the perfect balance by opening her own foot care business.
Garner is the proud owner of Desert Valley Foot Care, which has been open for the past several weeks and is currently treating patients in and around Osoyoos.
“I’ve worked for the past eight years in Osoyoos as a licensed private nurse and I was looking to do something different,” said Garner. “I just needed a change, but I still wanted to have close personal contact with my patients.
“I’ve always had a strong desire to care for people and I thought by opening my own business that I could have that big change, while still providing necessary care.”
After taking a brief course on foot care at Okanagan College recently, Garner decided a personal foot care business would probably be successful as longtime mentor and fellow nurse Margaret Anne Turner had recently retired from running her own successful business.
“Margaret is very well known in the nursing community in Osoyoos as she’s been a public health nurse for many years,” said Garner. “She’s also a dear friend and she energized and encouraged me to follow in her footsteps and try something with running my own foot care business.
“She has had a successful business in town for several years and she encouraged me to step in and see what I could do and I’m more than willing to take on that challenge.”
She decided to call her business Desert Valley Foot Care as a tribute to her first job as a nurse in Osoyoos.
“I was one of the first nurses hired at the former Desert Valley Care facility, which is the new home of the Desert Valley Hospice Society in Osoyoos,” she said. “It was a 10-bed facility and the people from those 10 beds were the first brought over when Mariposa Gardens opened eight years ago.
“I moved over to Mariposa and spent eight great years there. When I had to come up with a name, Desert Valley stuck in my head and it was kind of an easy decision.”
Garner’s new foot care business is “completely mobile” which is another way of saying she makes house calls.
“I provide full services in my clients’ homes,” she said.
Garner has also arranged an agreement with the owners of the Osoyoos Pharmasave to hold “Foot Care Fridays.”
She will offer her full range of services every Friday from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m.
Garner is looking forward to taking a reflexology course also offered at Okanagan College in the near future.
In a matter of only weeks, business has been good as she has been getting referrals from the public health unit and the Better at Home program run by the Desert Sun Resource and Counselling Centre.
“But word of mouth is what works best,” she said. “If you provide quality service at a reasonable price, there’s not a lot of trouble getting new clients.”
Receiving quality foot care can help improve the overall quality of life for many clients, especially those suffering from other ailments and helping clients feel better is what she enjoys the most about her new career, said Garner.
Anyone wanting more information about Desert Valley Foot Care can phone her at 250-408-4221 or drop by on Fridays at the Pharmasave in Osoyoos.
KEITH LACEY
Osoyoos Times
Kristen Garner works on the foot of client Marge MacLeod. (Richard McGuire photo)
