Being a nurse requires you to take responsibility for your patients care. It also means that you are standing, moving or walking anywhere between 8 and 16 hours every workday.
While a nurse is busy taking care and providing support to their patient, their feet and their shoes are providing the comfort and support they need to put the average 2,000 hours of pressure on their feet every year while healing and supporting their patient's health. A nurse has to be able to stand, walk and move easily throughout his or her day because that's what their job requires of them.
The main purpose of a good nurses shoe must be to provide the nurse with the right foot support for comfortable, long wear on a daily basis. Being a nurse, or health care professional, means putting thousands of hours of stress on their feet. This constant pressure to the feet mean that nurses are at high risk of developing foot related pain and discomfort. Typical problems nurses have by constantly standing and walking are arch pain, heel pain, such as plantar fasciitis, ball of foot pain, ankle problems, knee pain and lower back pain. These foot related problems are all issues a nurse must overcome or work through on a daily basis.
The best way to ensure that your feet can support that kind of constant pressure and movement is to know the key factors behind comfortable and supportive nurses shoes.
While there is no single right nurses shoe out there for every nurse. There are some key factors in what makes for a supportive and comfortable nurses shoe.
The four keys points to comfortable and supportive nurses shoes are a thick heel cup, a roomy toe box, a light shock absorbing sole and a neutral heel.
A thick heel cup is the first barrier to the impact of transferring body weight to the feet. A thick heel cup will give extra cushion and stability to your feet as they absorb the first part of the gait cycle.
A spacious toe box provides toes with the necessary wiggle room to spread out and function as the balance for the weight distribution though the foot. When testing for a good, spacious toe box try to move your toes around inside the shoe. There should be about a half inch of space at the top area of the toe box and feel no strain on the sides of the toes as they move.
A neutral heel provides your foot with the ability to evenly carry your body. Leave the high heels to shoes that want to focus on fashion, not working nurses shoes.
A lightweight, firm, shock absorbing sole provides the feet with an overall support through the walking cycle.
Aside from these four key factors, there is a combination of nurse shoes features that provides relief to
tension on the Achilles tendon and lowers the stress to the midfoot by distributing pressure evenly through the heel and toes. The combination is a wedged heel, a stiff midsole and a rocker bottom. This support is found on the Dansko style shoes and is why the shoes are popular and well received by nurses with some foot problems.
This combination may be the key to supportive and comfortable nurses shoes for some but this is not the only choice for the right kind of nurses shoes. Using the key factors above a nurse can successfully look for the comfort and support levels they need to happily put many hours on their feet and enjoy their job.
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