Current Pedorthics | September-October 2017 | Vol.49, Issue 5 | Page 20

Are you as good as your customers want you to be? As pedorthists we have been technically trained to address all sorts of ailments with little to no acknowledgment from the healthcare community and sometimes not even from the patients we encounter. So, we play it safe and advise our patients about what they "should" wear. Seems legit right? At the end of the day you helped addressing the foot problem instead of addressing the patient. Let me give you an example. We have a hospital nurse who is on her feet intermittently for twelve hours each shift. She has purchased a few shoes from you over the years. She has a low arch, a large "What if I told you that, as healthcare professionals, pedorthists are doing it wrong?" someone with their pain and foot problem and Medicare is happy with the level of compliance you held to with the services you rendered. You cross your fingers hoping the patients conform and comply with their new footwear and your expert advice. I'm about to say something very radical. So radical that you may flip the page and make a derogatory comment to a coworker or fellow pedorthist. What if I told you that, as healthcare professionals, pedorthists are doing it wrong? We are focused on 18 Pedorthic Footcare Association www.pedorthics.org bunion and pain in the area of the plantar fascia. She is an avid hiker, runner, kayaker and outdoor enthusiast. She is terrified of going shoe shopping because nothing ever seems to fit, it takes hours and usually ends up producing just another shoe in a sea of shoes in her closet that she rarely wears. Trying to cut down on the time and headaches for everyone involved, she goes online. Browsing various websites, our nurse is completely overwhelmed by the thousands of styles she encounters, so she types in the keyword "orthopedic" to