How to Stop Foot Pain from Standing All Day: A Nurses' & Teachers' Guide

Are you a teacher pacing your classroom for many hours, or a nurse rushing from room to room during a 12-hour shift? If you work on your feet all day, chances are, your feet feel the toll.

Hours of standing and walking on hard surfaces can lead to chronic foot pain. In fact, chronic foot pain is one of the most common reasons nurses leave their clinical career, many against their desire to stay in their direct patient care roles.

The good news? With a few practical updates to your routine and footwear, you can prevent foot pain and keep your feet in tip-top shape, so you can perform at your best, and stay in the careers you love.

Brands like HOKA, Brooks, Dansko, and Asics make models recommended by podiatrists for professionals on their feet. You might consider nursing-specific shoes like Uni (our particular favorite - they are also slip- and spill-resistant, have performance insoles, and look great, to boot).

But don’t take our (or anyone’s) word for it - there’s no scientific consensus on what features make a pair of shoes most supportive, and what works best for your feet is different from what works for someone else. As we explain in our guide to finding the best Plantar Fasciitis shoes, the best thing you can do is to go to a shoe store in person and try them on to find the ones that are most comfortable to you.

A pro tip: if you already have foot pain, do a before-after test when you’re at the store. Before you put the shoes on, rate your pain level on a scale of 1-10. Put them on, walk around, and rate your pain level on the same scale, and pick the pair that reduces your pain the most. Quantifying your pain level can be a surprisingly effective tool to know which shoes are the best for your foot pain.

Caveat: if you are recovering from chronic, repetitive stress injuries like Plantar Fasciitis and PTTD, it’s a good idea to stick to the same shoes. (Just get two pairs of the ones that work for you.) Wearing the same shoes minimizes the variables that your feet and legs have to adjust to, and that’s important for avoiding pain triggers when your tissue is healing and still sensitive. (More on reducing variables to prevent pain flare-ups here.)

Standing in one position for hours stresses your feet and legs, so try to build in micro-breaks when possible. Just a minute or two to sit or stretch can help prevent tension from building up.

One surprisingly effective micro-break, even when you can’t sit down, is to rest one of your feet on a step stool to elevate it for a minute.

• Soleus stretch: You can stretch your calf muscles (soleus) by placing one leg behind the other, then bending your back leg toward the front leg and sinking down into your front leg. (Using a wall or a chair as a support can help!)
  
• Ankle circles: Sit down with one ankle resting on the other knee. Turn the front of your foot slowly in a circular motion, first clockwise, then counterclockwise.
• Use stairs: If you walk and stand all day, but never use the stairs, going up and down the stairs occasionally can be an easy way to incorporate some stretchy variety to your movements.

If you have persistent pain in your arch, heel, or ankle, it’s possible you have an injury that needs active treatment. Nurses, teachers, and others who work on their feet all day are at a higher risk of developing conditions like Plantar Fasciitis and PTTD, as a result of prolonged standing, walking or running, unsupportive footwear, and most importantly, repetitive stress on the weak tissue.

Take our foot and ankle pain quiz to find out if that's the case for you. Both Plantar Fasciitis and PTTD can cause debilitating pain, but with the correct treatment applied consistently, most people can fully recover.

There are several other conditions that cause pain in your foot and ankle, including Achilles Tendonitis. It’s worth checking out our foot pain chart to see if your foot pain might need active treatment that goes beyond the tips in this post.