Confessions of a Nurse: Ask Me About My Shoes

"Confessions of a Nurse" will be a series of rants, basically. This is part 1!

I have a slight obsession with shoes. Not just your typical girl obsession with cute high heels or fancy flats. I love work shoes. I might also hoard shoes that I rarely wear...you never know when you'll need a backup pair in our line of work. Am I right?

I have never really been interested in the traditional nursing shoes, like the Dansko brand clogs. They seem heavy, oddly shaped, and well...they aren't very ascetically pleasing. I know comfort is number one priority in choosing shoes when you are a nurse in any atmosphere since we are on our feet so much, but I just cannot justify buying a pair knowing I'll hate them. Plus, they come with a pretty little price tag. Not knocking any of my fellow nurses that do wear these, if they work for you that is AWESOME, but the shoes I wear work perfectly for me, so I'll stick with them. I typically wear runners, which are athletic type shoes. I also own a pair of off-brand crocs, even though they are about as cute as a potato, they work well when my feet are too swollen for regular shoes or instances where I have a bandaged foot. I invested in those after a toenail removal. It's pretty hard to have a wrapped up toe in a pair of Nikes, to say the least.

So, let's back it up a bit, shall we?

During LPN school, we were required to wear all white shoes for clinical. At first, I wore an old pair of cheerleading shoes I had in the back of my closet. I was B-R-O-K-E from buying textbooks, so I couldn't exactly go splurge on a pair of GOOD shoes at the time. Silly me, I thought they would be good shoes to be on my feet so much since they never made my little piggies ache after jumping, tumbling, and running for hours at a time back in high school. I was wrong. Oh so wrong. They just were not made for standing on the hard hospital floors for hours and hours. After a semester of aching legs and feet, I got the money to purchase a decent pair of white shoes. After some recommendations from fellow classmates, I found a pair of shoes resembling Keds with some cushion on the inside. They were ridiculously comfortable. I am pretty devastated that I lost them during a move after graduation.

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Back to the present!

I am not entirely sure how many pairs of shoes I have, but it is enough to fill up a large bin in my closet. Even so, I still find myself looking for a new pair sometimes. I love the shoes I already have. A few pairs matched the first set of scrubs I got when I started my job. Three pairs total, I think. Well, then they changed our scrub colors! I had to indulge in my obsession and purchase new shoes to match the new colors, of course. I still wear the other pairs, even if they don't match perfectly.

Through the process of trying out different styles and brands I have discovered a few things:

1. If you have a small foot, like I do (6.5-7 in women's) you can fit in kids shoes. They are much cheaper. I promise it is worth it.

2. Different brands and styles fit different. I've had to exchange a few shoes to get a different size due to this. Not a big deal, but if you're like me and do a lot of online shopping, it is kind of annoying.

3. Socks. Some socks I own do not work with certain shoes. So I ended up buying all kinds of socks, too.

4. A good thing about owning so many pairs of runners is that if I actually ever went running or to a gym, I'd have a plethora of choices to go with. (I run maybe once a year or if I am being chased by a flying insect...so this is just an observation of mine. LOL) Owning this many pairs of shoes comes in handy, in my opinion, because it will make them last longer since I can wear a different pair each day. I have not had to throw a pair away in 4 years. If they get dirty, I just toss them in the washer and call it a day. I've been good and have not bought a new pair in a while, but it is always so tempting when I see a good sale or a really cute pair of my favorite style Nikes in a store. I am curious how much longer I can make it before giving in and finding my next pair of work shoes. I cannot be the only nurse that has this problem, can I? Oh well. There are far worse things to be obsessed with than work shoes.

Cheers!