Nursing Trends
What are Crocs?
Crocs are a special form of footwear that was first introduced to the market in the year 2002. They are mostly worn by toddlers, young adults, and some adults. The mystery to the immense popularity of the Crocs is its unique properties like how they clean very easily and the light feeling that people have after wearing the shoes. They are generally worn for a day on the beach or on a trip to the nearby swimming pool. People generally wear it for free days, but they also make the mistake of wearing Crocs for a run or a hiking trip!
Crocs have several advantages, which have propelled its immense popularity. It has been provided with an antibacterial lining that prevents the wearer from having any form of fungal or bacterial infection, which usually causes smelly feet and smelly socks. Crocs are having a set of holes and a lot of space right in the front of the shoe to allow ventilation of your feet and for patients who suffer from hammertoe symptoms. The shoes also come with a strap that not only adds to the usefulness of the product but also adds to the style factor.
However, the trend nowadays is for medical practitioners and doctors to wear Crocs because of its fantastic facilities.
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Why are they wearing Crocs so frequently?
According to the various surgeons and doctors who wear Crocs very frequently to their hospitals, they are straightforward to clean. As doctors, they are supposed to handle several bodily fluids that can easily slip out of containers and fall on their feet and clothes, spoiling all that they touch in the process.
Crocs have a huge fan following in the medical industry, and that contributes to about a quarter of the total sales of Crocs. Even the Crocs website has a special section on its website, which is dedicated to medical practitioners, doctors, and surgeons. These Crocs help them feel at home, even when they are running from one part of the hospital to another. The Crocs are not only easy to clean, but they also prevent stains from accumulating due to the Croslite material that they are made of.
One nurse said in an interview that she loves wearing Crocs because it not only adds a pop of color to her entire otherwise drab outfit but also helps her feel comfortable even when she spends almost half of her work time standing. She mentioned that she feels at home when she wears this light footwear that helps her navigate through the day without any problem.
According to another doctor in Pennsylvania, there was a case of a lot of blood being drained onto his feet. He was wearing a pair of his Crocs luckily and only had to just wash them off under the sink. He then dried up his Crocs using a paper towel, and they became as fresh as they were in the morning.
Crocs are helping out doctors all over the world, and they make it a point to send positive reviews and congratulatory calls and emails to the parent company. They constantly thank the company for coming up with such a great product that is helping them in more than one way.
According to recent statistics, medical professionals spend more on Crocs every year instead of canvas shoes or sneakers for themselves. This shows not only the dedication to the brand but also the importance of this comfortable footwear in their workplace.
This widespread popularity of Crocs has propelled the head company to reduce the clogging problem in the Crocs and completely remove it from the upcoming models. They want to figure out a way where the present ventilation conditions exist, and the clogging problem is completely done away with.
Some doctors maintain two different pairs of Crocs, one for the hospital and one for their commute from home to work and vice versa. This is done to maintain hygiene and prevent infections due to germs from the hospital.
In a recent survey, it was found that 41% of the entire Crocs sales came from Asia, while 44% of the total sales were brought in from the United States of America.
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Should they be wearing Crocs for such a long time?
According to multiple podiatrists, Crocs are not suitable for anyone’s feet. Crocs are not bad for your feet generally, but the symptoms start showing if you start wearing them for more than 8-10 hours per day. They were originally designed to help the people who need to operate on boats. The surface of any kind of boat is very slippery, and there is very little friction. There is the problem of water clogging as well. Crocs were like a boon for these people. However, it became a style statement suddenly, and Crocs have been selling like hotcakes ever since then.
The problem with Crocs lies in the fact that it is unable to secure the heel and provide excellent arch support. This causes the toes to grip, which results in numerous problems such as degraded toe deformities, tendinitis, corns, nail problems, and calluses. The same kind of problems is also caused by flip-flops and backless shoes, which also fail to provide optimum ankle support and cause the arch of the toe to be strained.
Crocs also tend to cause multiple problems in the shank area of the foot. The shank area is a ligament that starts from the heel and ends at the toe. If you wear a pair of Crocs for almost 8-10 hours per day or even more, the shank area gets irritated and can cause constant pain. If you avoid your heel pain or the irritation in your ankle, the pain can transfer and grow upon your hip region and can cause back pain. Hence, long stretches of wearing Crocs can cause harm to not only your feet and the connected areas but also your whole body.
Crocs are not the solution to problems that the medical field hails it to be. Instead, it is a slow drug that can harm the body of the doctor or nurse. This is not very good for their career because they need to spend a lot of their time standing and moving around the hospital.
Imagine a hectic day at the hospital where patients are coming one after the other. There is running, and a nurse ends up falling due to the slippery Crocs slipping on the hospital floor. This will lead to another accident and reduce the efficiency as well as productivity of the hospital. This is one of the major accidents that normally occur in the hospital.
Many doctors and surgeons and end up complaining of back pain and heel pain due to long hours of standing in their Crocs. This prevents them from achieving a lot more than they are achieving with their painful legs.
Crocs are more useful than the problems that they tend to cause with surgeons and doctors. However, we would like to request that these doctors first contact their podiatrists before switching to their canvas shoes for a pair of Crocs for their work commute. Podiatrists can easily examine the feet and help the surgeons choose the correct footwear that will not only be practical but can be easily cleaned. Surgeons can also opt for the Crocs RX line of footwear that helps both the wearer and his/her body.
Crocs can also be worn for short durations. So doctors, nurses, and surgeons can opt for wearing their pair of Crocs only when they are treating their patients, and there may be cases of spillage and clogging. Surgeons can limit their Crocs wearing time to only when they are performing surgery. This will serve the purpose of the Crocs and also prevent the surgeons from placing the health of their feet in jeopardy.
Conclusion
Surgeons and doctors have admitted that they love their pair of Crocs too much because of its cleaning features and the comfortable fit, which relieves their feet of the pain due to standing throughout the day. They also contribute to a lot of annual sales of Crocs and make up for about one-eighth of the total profit of them. They are a treasured part of the Crocs customer community, and the parent company has rewarded them for the same by building a separate part of their website only for medical practitioners and doctors. The medical industry has also been more than grateful for the special features that they add to the Crocs to help them.
Wearing Crocs for such a long period is not recommended by any podiatrists, who themselves also form a huge part of the medical industry. They have asked the consumers to limit their time while wearing Crocs to reduce the strain that their feet face due to the doctors and nurses standing for long periods.
