Why white shoes?

[oldsockventriloquist]

I have seen a lot of posts where schools are requiring nursing students to wear white shoes for clinical. I wanted to know why nursing school have that requirement. It would seem that running shoes that usually don't come in white or crocs would be much better for the long standing. Also, I would think you could get both (white and non-white) shoes to be just as sterile. I know that many other health professions do not require the white shoes for their students. What gives?

[Kristenlaurenw]

For some reason, when a nurse goes into education at a nursing school, modern times are erased from their memories. They get obsessed with all this Florence Nightingale stuff and get all formal about it.

[martymoose, BSN, RN]

I wear "sneakers" as I literally have to sprint to get all the bed/chir alarms we have.

It's kinda hard to sprint/run from a seated or standing position with the danskos on. Some of my co workrs do it tho, sounds like a heard of elephants when we are all doing that at the same time.

Danskos kill my feet and back. So do sneakers, buit less so.

I have had luck with sketchers work shoe/sneaker and they come in black and white

[westieluv]

I tried to read through all of the previous replies to make sure that this wasn't already addressed, so if it was, my apologies, I missed it.

I think it has a lot to do with what running shoes and other athletic shoes look like these days. A lot of my younger co-workers wear day-glo bright fluorescent running shoes to work, which is apparently what is in style now. I don't really care what others wear, but I can see where they can be distracting and considered by some to be gaudy and not very professional looking. Maybe the thought process is that the first thing that patients notice when their nurse enters the room should not be how bright their shoes are, because I have heard many patients comment on this to my co-workers. However, I work in a chronic dialysis unit where we see the same patients three times a week for months and years, and there is an informality between us and our patients that is not there in most nurse/patient relationships where the nurse often meets her patients for the first time during each shift and does not get to know them very well before they go home a few days later, so maybe our patients are more likely to be open and personal in their comments.

One thing I am a stickler for in nursing shoes is leather instead of cloth/mesh, especially working in dialysis. A few days ago, one of my co-workers was wearing mesh running shoes and forgot to clamp a patient's AV fistula needle before she disconnected it from the dialysis tubing. She quickly clamped it before it harmed the patient, but it caused him to spill at least a couple of teapoons of blood on the floor and on the top of her shoe, which of course soaked right through to her sock and foot. Yuck! If I didn't already wear leather shoes, that incident would have convinced me, but she came back to work yesterday wearing cloth shoes again.

[westieluv]

I wear "sneakers" as I literally have to sprint to get all the bed/chir alarms we have.

It's kinda hard to sprint/run from a seated or standing position with the danskos on. Some of my co workrs do it tho, sounds like a heard of elephants when we are all doing that at the same time.

Danskos kill my feet and back. So do sneakers, buit less so.

I have had luck with sketchers work shoe/sneaker and they come in black and white

This comment made me literally LOL, just the mental picture of a bunch of nurses sprinting down a hallway in Danskos, clunking all the way.

I tried Danskos once, personally, I HATE them. I don't care if they're cute, or expensive, or trendy or whatever. When I wear them I feel like I am standing on elevated concrete.

[TiffyRN, BSN, PhD]

One thing I am a stickler for in nursing shoes is leather instead of cloth/mesh, especially working in dialysis. A few days ago, one of my co-workers was wearing mesh running shoes and forgot to clamp a patient's AV fistula needle before she disconnected it from the dialysis tubing. She quickly clamped it before it harmed the patient, but it caused him to spill at least a couple of teapoons of blood on the floor and on the top of her shoe, which of course soaked right through to her sock and foot. Yuck! If I didn't already wear leather shoes, that incident would have convinced me, but she came back to work yesterday wearing cloth shoes again.

Did no blood fall on her arms or legs? Why do my feet need leather shielding when no other part of my body requires this? I could almost buy a justification of steel tip shoes especially in an area where you do a lot of stretcher transfers. But why is it so appalling for my feet to have blood/feces spilled on it, but not so bad if it falls on my thigh? (Which has happened to me).

[westieluv]

Did no blood fall on her arms or legs? Why do my feet need leather shielding when no other part of my body requires this? I could almost buy a justification of steel tip shoes especially in an area where you do a lot of stretcher transfers. But why is it so appalling for my feet to have blood/feces spilled on it, but not so bad if it falls on my thigh? (Which has happened to me).

We wear long sleeved, fluid impermeable gowns with snug fitting cuffs at the neck and wrists that cover us from our necks down to past our knees any time we are performing patient care, along with the obvious rubber gloves and a plastic face shield. The only part of us that is exposed when we are around body fluids is our lower pant legs and our feet, so even though we are shrouded in leather from head to toe, we are pretty much protected from body fluid spills if we use our PPE properly.

If this nurse had been wearing leather shoes, this patient's blood would not have made contact with her skin. I think that is a pretty compelling argument for wearing leather shoes, but again, I work in dialysis where we deal heavily with body fluids all day long.

[westieluv]

Oops! Should say we are NOT shrouded in leather from head to toe, lol.

[Ruby Vee, BSN]

Did no blood fall on her arms or legs? Why do my feet need leather shielding when no other part of my body requires this? I could almost buy a justification of steel tip shoes especially in an area where you do a lot of stretcher transfers. But why is it so appalling for my feet to have blood/feces spilled on it, but not so bad if it falls on my thigh? (Which has happened to me).

If it falls on your arms, you wash them. If it falls on your thigh, you can get OR scrubs or use the extra set you have stashed in your locker or the trunk of your car. (You do have scrubs stashed for just such an eventuality, don't you?) If it falls on your feet and goes through the mesh, do you have a spare set of shoes/socks stashed? Can you clean the shoes enough that you'll ever put them back on again?

I used to have an extra pair of New Balance stored in my car, but summer temperatures in the 90s and 100s melted the glue holding the sole together, and when I needed them they were useless. Who knew?

[TiffyRN, BSN, PhD]

So I'm cool as long as I have a spare pair of shoes in my locker? OK.

Back to my point, which wasn't what to do if my clothing gets soiled. . . the skin on my feet is not more vulnerable than the skin on my arms or legs.

Props to you guys in dialysis who live ensconced in plastic, I'd wear protective shoes there too.

But in 23+ years of bedside nursing (9 in adult med-surg), I've only ever had one nasty spill on my shoes. Plops of semi-liquid stool while transferring a patient to bed. Right over the top of the shoe, into the lace holes. I don't remember it soaking though but it wasn't liquid like blood. Foot unexposed, I wiped things off, made it through my shift and bought new shoes the next day.

Now, I've had countless minor exposures to my arms, neck, face, hair. Even when wearing appropriate equipment.

And one near "foot exposure".

So I stand by my defense of wearing fabric shoes as a reasonable (and minor) risk.

And emphasize to the OP that you won't win this battle in nursing school, sorry!

[Julius Seizure]

Danskos kill my feet and back. So do sneakers, buit less so.

/QUOTE]

I vote that we have all hospitals convert the hallways floors to AstroTurf.

[gelli.25]

Tradition. Initially, I didn't mind; I didn't know any better. I was a young, new nursing student; I was excited!

Then I began to hate the white scrubs and the white shoes. It got a bit old.

After I graduated, literally the next semester, the program changed the dressing attire to a more comfortable set of scrubs with colors matching the alma mater. Good for them.