Imagine how many miles we would put on our feet if walking were our primary mode of transportation. The homeless must rely on their feet to take them most places, regardless of the distance, and they usually accumulate a lot of foot mileage in ill-fitting shoes. When Lin Drury, an associate professor of nursing at DePaul University, opened a clinic for the homeless and the uninsured last winter, she knew that feet were a good place to start to administer care.

On Mondays and Wednesdays, from 10 a.m. until 2 p.m. at St. Vincent de Paul Church, 1010 W. Webster Ave., in a small room off the main rectory, foot care is in full swing. There are five stations filled with patients, each soaking his feet in a bath of warm sudsy water. Drury and DePaul nursing students are carefully handling feet through their sheer latex gloves. The room is abuzz with conversation. Drury asks the patient whose toenails she is clipping how the insoles worked for him that he’d gotten from the clinic last week. “It’s like walking on clouds,” was his grateful reply.

Drury, a community health nurse with long-term experience working with people living on the streets, opened the free clinic in February of 2002 with a $5,000 Vincentian Endowment Grant she received from the university. The clinic is staffed by Drury, a rotating list of students from DePaul’s nursing program and another DePaul nursing professor who volunteers one day a month. The year-round clinic treats between 20 and 40 patients a week and has been able to sustain itself primarily through donations. Many of the patients who come to the clinic are regular visitors to St. Vincent’s food pantry that is open 365 days a year. On the days the clinic is open, many visitors stick around after breakfast to sign up for an examination and then sit patiently in the church awaiting their turn.

“I thought about foot care because I knew it was something that everyone would want,” explained Drury. She indicated that tending to patients’ feet allowed her and her nurses-in-training to establish rapport and trust with patients, many of whom are weekly visitors to the clinic. “Nobody has to feel ashamed about having their feet tended to and, in the course of conversation, sooner or later whatever else is wrong will come out.”

Drury’s medical training allows her to diagnose a number of ailments by examining the feet of her patients. “I’ve identified people who have diabetes and vascular disease,” said Drury. “When someone comes in with huge feet and ankles, that kind of swelling is symptomatic of a serious health problem.”

In addition to foot care, each patient receives a pair of socks and a general examination that includes a blood pressure test. Almost everyone who comes into the clinic is hypertensive, Drury said, which can be attributed to poor health habits and high stress levels. Other common maladies are: upper respiratory problems, skin infections, gastro-intestinal problems, trauma and exposure-related conditions. In the summer, patients come to the clinic suffering from sunburn and dehydration. In the winter, Drury and her students see a number of cases of frostbite.

Whenever the patient’s condition is too severe to be treated at the clinic, referrals are made to St. Joseph Hospital, which has agreed to absorb all but 10 percent of the cost of outpatient treatment for patients who come from the clinic. Referrals also are made to an area dentist who will see patients needing routine dental care free of charge. According to Drury, because of the hospital’s sliding scale, the clinic’s cost for hospital care for its referrals averages between $5 and $10 per patient. When patients come in with chronic or emergency medical needs, they are referred to Stroger County Hospital.

The students working with Drury are volunteers whose service at the clinic helps them meet a portion of their clinical requirements. They are trained to conduct physical assessments, which include foot examinations, and to provide foot care. According to Drury, students gain psychology experience, as well, because they are interacting with patients who oftentimes are coping with stress, domestic abuse, substance abuse and the effects of extreme poverty.

Danielle Kidston, 23, a student in the university’s master’s program in general nursing, is earning extra credit in her physical assessment class for her time spent in the foot care clinic. However, that is not why she volunteers. “The clinic is my favorite part of the program,” said Kidston. “It’s a lot different from a big hospital. You really get to know your patients because this is, essentially, their only form of medical care.” “It’s fantastic – one of the best programs around,” said Norman Campbell, while waiting to be examined during his third visit to the clinic. “Nobody has ever given complete foot care. I feel so much better when I leave here.”

If Drury has her way in the future a far larger number of patients will be able to experience the same benefits that Campbell raved about. However, that will require funding. Currently, the clinic is supported by an additional grant from the university and a contribution from a pharmaceutical firm.

However, it can always use supplies, particularly shoes, tube socks, insoles, toothbrushes, bandages, long underwear, coats, jackets and nutritional food bars. In the summer months, which bring as many patients as the cold weather season, the clinic needs sunscreen and bottled water. Drury also is attempting to find a way to get CTA passes below the market rate to pay for the transportation of patients who must travel from the clinic to St. Joseph’s Hospital’s Lakeview area clinic.

In the meantime, she is freeing up time to write grant proposals that hopefully will bring her closer to the realization of her vision for an ideal clinic. “I’d not only like to see a much bigger, fully staffed and fully funded operation, I’d like to offer respite care for people who are too sick to go back on the street,” said Drury. “A place where people who needed a few days of TLC would be able to get it.”

For information about donations call 773/325-1166 or email ldrury@depaul.edu . For information about DePaul’s nursing programs, visit the department’s Web site at www.depaul.edu/~nursing or call 773/325-7280.