Clinic and Mobile Must-Haves: Tools and Supplies That Will Save You Time and Money

 Clinic and mobile Must-Haves: Tools and Supplies That Will Save You Time and Money 

Is your go-to episode for discovering the essential items every foot care nurse and wellness clinic should have on hand. Whether you’re just starting out or looking to streamline your practice, this episode dives into the smart tools, affordable equipment, and time-saving supplies that can improve efficiency, enhance client care, and boost your bottom line. Join us as we share practical tips, trusted brands, and insider advice to help you build a clinic setup that works for you—without breaking the bank.

Transcript

SPEAKER_00: 0:35

Hi, my Foot Nurse colleagues and friends. Well, we're back with quite an exciting episode. Um, I'm always choosing different topics and I'm usually looking around at things I'm seeing posted on forums or questions you guys are sending us. I have a lot of one-on-one um meetings that I will book uh with nurses, or sometimes on our network meeting, I see where we're going and where we need some answers. So this week's episode is time-saving tools and smart supplies for footcare nurses. And these are some of my must-haves. That's definitely what I'll say. So, hello, beautiful entrepreneurs, and welcome back to another episode of Empower Her Entrepreneur. And it's a podcast for bold, brilliant, and business-minded women who are building impactful business in footcare and beyond. Whether you're running a full-scale footcare clinic, offering mobile visits, or just launching launching your side hustle, I want to key help you save time, save money, and show up like the pro you are without the overwhelm. Today's episode is a practical one because we are talking about your tools and supplies, specifically what you actually need to run a smooth, efficient, and professional foot care practice, and which items will save you both time and money, whether you're in a clinic or mobile. So grab your coffee, maybe your wine, and your no bad end. Let's get into it, everybody. So let's talk about the first section, the professional edge. Let's set set or start by setting the stage. As footcare nurses, we're not just offering a treatment, we're offering an experience. We're healthcare providers, but we're also entrepreneurs. And in business, your tools matter. They help shape your workflow, your client outcomes, and your professional reputation. If you've ever noticed, while you're treating one of your clients, whatever situation it may be, they keep a very closeful eye on what you're using. I love to explain often what I'm doing. I remember first starting out, people had so many questions, and it was fun to keep talking with them and help them understand what gold practice we are. So with every reprocessing pouch that I ripped open, that's a perfect example. I was able to explain how they were individually packaged and why, and a lot of clients really find all that information quite fascinating. But they also are realizing at that same moment, okay, this person really cares and they're really, really safe. So they notice the tools you're using. Um not just what you're using, but that they're clean, that your carts are good, everything's set up, everything looks good. But here's the thing it's easy to get overwhelmed by all the gadgets and shiny equipment, and there's a lot out there. I see nurses spending thousands on kits they barely use, or worse, struggling with subpart tools that waste time and cause stress. When you're in the beginning, less is more. And to those of you out there, I've got people listening who have been in practice for 20 years, and I know you agree, we all have our favorites. So you're better to buy one of something and go, yeah, it's alright, but I sure love this burr in this shape. I mean, you can say I love a ceramic burr, but is it conical? Is it cylinder? Uh, like there's so many different things out there. So before you get overwhelmed and spend thousands, hopefully you've learned that lesson that you're trying things just one at a time. If you've got a colleague, it may very much be worth it to, my gosh, borrow or a few burrs, get a little test kit going. I know some of our suppliers out there, uh, Kathy at CBC, you got a hold of her. Um she loves stuff like this. She would love to help you out and show you that one burr and what it does and what's most popular and I guess what will work really well. Um today I'm giving you a list of kind of some non-negotiable must-haves and some save your sanity items you may not have thought of. So let's go over my ultimate foot care toolkit for both clinic and mobile visits. The core kit must-haves. First is a great rotary tool or your kind of your micromotor drill. One thing's for sure is I do have one type that I use, and all my nurses use mobile, right? Because we're in facilities, home visits, it's more on the go. And then we also have our drills that are in our treatment rooms, much bigger, much harder, especially um, like I said, if you're mobile. So those are our drills that are either um they're vacuum integrated, right? So they've got um, they're all professional grade units that are quiet, very low uh vibration, and good speed control. But the cordless versions are amazing for mobile nurses. Just make sure the battery lasts at least three to four clients. I'll be quite honest with you. In my experience in regards to the cordless drills, sometimes these expensive models, I'm talking 500 up, 400 up, um, are breaking just as often as the ones that are seen as more aesthetic. I think what you need to look for is a minimum of 35,000 RPMs. Look at reviews. A lot of my nurses, in all honesty, get them from Amazon now. Um, I have had some of those nurses have had the same drill for six years and they spent$100. And other nurses have bought the$500 one and it's broken six months. Um, so you'll have to gauge what works best for you. All of these are safe to be using on toenails. They are closed units, you're able to wipe them down. And Lord Almighty, please, please do not use a Dremel. That is a woodworking tool, and don't use a supplier that even suggests it. Excuse me, that means they're not best practice and they're not falling through what is is best for you. So, I mean, we've got models that are white, black, color doesn't really matter. I find they're sleek. The mobile ones we absolutely love because they sit in our pocket. I think the best advice I can give you was about the cost ones. Um, like I said, and the ones that are the bigger units usually use water, they're vacuum integrated. Um, or us we like the waterless models, but those are Canadian compliant, they're CSA approved models. Um, everything we use is for um either aesthetics or medical foot care, meaning closed units, easy wipable. Uh, we we've been through a lot of drills, but there's so many replacement parts out there. We also do love, there's one supplier, I don't know if it's an ortho med. Um, they do the vacuum-integrated drills, they're an excellent cost, and uh, we found really good success with them because the family-oriented business, and if there's been an issue, my gosh, they like send me a loaner, they cover it if something's going on. Super impressive. I know I uh got through CPC. I'm just trying to remember the name. Anyway, let's go on to reusable um medical grade instruments. Don't skimp here, good quality nippers, black files, double-ended probes, and diamond burrs, carbide burrs, all the burrs are absolutely worth it. Um, you will find though, you you got to do a little shopping. There's definitely um a lot of suppliers out there all around, uh, especially for your burrs, that you can get better deals. Um there are some suppliers really expensive, and I have found them, you know, half the price with somebody else. Um, also sometimes going to the aesthetic places, like the beauty places, they're actually carrying the same brand. And I have no idea why, but yet there's they're cheaper. Maybe because it's an aesthetics person buying it and not a medical person. I'm not quite sure, but make sure you look at your spa and your booty places and look for those name brands that you already know um are being sold everywhere. And sometimes you get a really good price, sometimes they go on sale. Um, nippers for us, um, I notice all my girls except for one of them, we actually like the smaller nippers. I don't know if we've all got small hands, but we've actually really started to like the four-inch and the four and a half. And I know the five and the five and a half um are kind of the general one that most people buy. But if you ever get the chance, those smaller nippers, I don't know, it just feels like more control, but you do you. Because I always say everybody should try the spring loaded, they should try this one. There are so many different nippers out there. Again, if you could, you know, have a colleague or for love of God, just buy one of them to try. Also, um, ingrown nippers, everybody, you know, uses different things. We've come to actually like if you can picture um the nipper that's used for cuticles, we have perfected using that to get an ingrown nail. Um, because of the one that's so sharp, um, the ingrown nipple, I know nipper, and I know it gets way in there, but it, I don't know, it's always poking, hurting the client. We've tried different things, and we're actually finding the ingrow pal we love. And same with that ingrown um, the cuticle nipper because the way it's curved inwards. Um, nurses are we really turned to that this year, and nurses are really, really loving it. All of the the different burrs out there um have different tasks. I have always been a cylinder person um as opposed to conical. Um, and that's just for shape, not texture. I generally love my carbides, um, people ceramic, and then I try to always teach, I find sometimes nurses get a little scared about their practice, and I see way, way too many nurses use like a diamond burr for everything. And I call a diamond burr a finishing burr or a smoothing burr. I see a lot that a lot happen. So make sure that when you're arming yourself with the best tools, that you're trying everything. Um, because carbides, dime or and uh ceramics, I mean, that can take off a two-inch thick nail in no time. So you sometimes have to push a little bit and try those different things. Um, the sterilization pouches and the labeling system. We love the obviously the self-seat sealing sterilization pouches. We make sure that we're using the class four. That way there's internal and external. I think um a supplier did a recent video because for the love of God, why would you want to have to be sticking another class five or sorry, four indicator with your class five and blah, blah, blah? Make life easier on yourself. And one of our favorite things that we have in our reprocessing room is using a label gun. And there's a label gun that I know there's a very expensive one by Stereo Supply, but we have actually also found, I don't know if it was a two-line or a three-line gun um off of Staples like Business Supply that we were able to still fit the same information date, uh, load number, and all of our nurses, because there's so many, there's an operator number. So that's a cost save there too. Um, I think we got it for like 50 bucks, this label gun. And I mean, do you know how fast you can label all of your packages going in and out with that information? Because that's what you you need to identify on it. Because I do know the other gun is over$400. So that's a really neat uh cost save that we have loved in our sterilization room for sure. Um, pairing it with the label gun uh it keeps your system like audit ready and definitely compliant. And also, I think we love it because we can use the gun when we're doing our sterilization um logs for public health. We keep those up every day. The best thing is you can do one of your stickers, stick it on the log, it shows you the date, the number instead of having to hand write all of that. Another little time save right there. Uh, number four, uh portable stool or ergonomic seating, especially for mobile to save your back. Um, a lightweight foldable stool is really important, and a lot of times um not everybody's got the lazy boys. So we find that the leg rests that you can put your leg up on of, I think they're$49.99 right now on Amazon, that's what you would use for your client to have their leg um staying up and you'd be able to complete the care. Because, Lord Almighty, have we all been there that you had to put the foot in your lap? Okay, that's not only ergonomic, it doesn't feel good, it's not great at all. Really, once you get used to your mobile clients, um, you know which ones have the lazy boy, which one don't. So keeping it in the trunk of your car is always a great idea. In regards to all of our clinic spaces, we have used the spa supply, um, not actually podiatry, but spa supply, and usually we can get a chair for under$2,000 that has the pedal to lift it up and down, and we are working at the perfect height whenever we need to. It's much more um comfortable for the client. But if you want the podiatry style, I know like even Medical Mart has um great programs to outfit your whole suite essentially, not just a chair. But for us, we have used the beauty facial spa ones. I mean, they look gorgeous. We got them in white and black in all the rooms. Um, and and most of ours have lasted. I mean, we're going on a a decade now. Uh, so some of those are to me one of the most important, and it looks really good for the client. Uh, I think the hardest choice is when mobile, uh, I used to use a collapsible stool, and that worked well for me, but everybody's gonna be a bit different about what they can carry, what they do, and what's comfortable. Okay, five uh skin and nail products you actually believe in. So if you've got um a go-to foot cream, antifungal solution, callus softener that you trust, keep your line simple. Uh, overloading your products definitely confuses clients. And well, you know, it can drain your stock from having to keep all of that in. So for us, we absolutely love our products, and what we do is we use a foam-based product and a cream-based product, and we don't get lost in um, I know uh all the, you know, this is better, that's better. We've been comfortable with what we're using. We're currently using for the last 14 years foot logics, and we pair that with um uh Geewall, um, the creams we find they have a great um line there. We use paradigm offloading devices, those are fantastic, the company is fantastic. Um, we also have loved uh Biotime Shoes um and the Apex brand of orthopedic wear. All those things have served us really well. And I know a lot of colleagues and people I have taught or mentored over the years uh will follow suit and they'll carry them, and they've also had really great success. But like I said, you don't want to get so overwhelmed with the this and then that. As nurses, we're really not trying to sell anything, instead, we're trying to promote a healthcare plan that may utilize these items to get the client their long-term goal of where they're going. And we have to always think too, um, by having that in our arsenal, we really are completing our care plan with them. Don't think of yourself as selling. Think of the long-range care plan that's going on that you'd be able to suggest because we also need to be doing these things for our clients to create a home care plan. So definitely some of the things I've just said uh have been huge. The different shoes, um, lunatic socks, we love those for compression. Absolutely fantastic company to work with. Um, oh, SimCan socks. We love their diabetic socks and hot socks at um summer or sorry, summer, Christmas are absolutely the best. They're a hot seller. Um, so now that you've got the basic, let's talk about some smart add-ons that can elevate your practice. One has uh usually been the LED headlamp or clip-on light. So because you can't rely on the poor room lighting, a hands-free headlamp or bright clip-on will totally change your game. Uh, two, digital charting app or some type of charting and scheduling management system. Uh, electronic is definitely streamlining your intake and charting, and time is money. Um, because when we now use this, this digital charting, um, we can actually take pictures, add it to their file, we can um send out reminders, we have them fill out their intake and health forms before the appointment. There's just so much um you can do. We use Clinico. I can definitely like I I think there's company on, there's Jane's app. I mean you do you. We have always used Clinico and it's self-served us. It's awesome. Uh, we've got all our charting templates pre-set up. Um, and while us, we used a health law team to develop our consent and health intake for better liability. We were able to upload those to um our medical, our digital charting system, and it's very easy for our clients to get it and us to keep a copy, it goes to them, especially with when dealing with POAs that are farther away and you might want them to read something. This has definitely been a game changer. Uh, and then another thing is a rolling case or a mobile troll uh trolley bag. If you can find one that's good, that's gonna work for you, that's not heavy, make sure you're looking at the weight of it itself. Um, but our biggest thing is we love the foldable, collapsible carts. You can get that on Amazon and Canadian Tire sells them. I love these for our facility nurses. Every single one of them has them because the top is all your clean tools, the middle is all your products and extras, and the bottom is your sealed containers for all your dirty tools. Game changer. They go, we have our facility set up floor to floor, they just push their card along and it works really, really well. Folds up, goes into the trunk. Four would be a portable payment solution. We use Square, um, and it's nice and portable. I don't think I have to explain anymore. It makes it really easy. We also that's another thing is when you choose your different systems, we do have QuickBooks Online accounting. So for our clients that can't Pay. We're able to send an invoice, they're able to pay online, send us an e-transfer. We've really got a lot of payment solutions set up. Uh, yes, there's always risk that your accounts receivable may grow from somebody not paying, but we also want the clients, we want to grow. When you're forcing clients to only pay one or two ways, um, you may find that they might just go with someone else, and that's never good. That's not called growing your business. So, the more ideas for you to be able to pay them, the better. Um, of course, five, you need your branded items, your business cards, your consent forms, appointment reminders. Make sure absolutely everything has your logo. This has been some of the game changers for us is everything coming in and out is absolutely professional. All of our nurses have um, we always wear logoed shirts, always the same color, always um, even the scrubs. We are very united. It looks extremely professional. I know everyone loves to have fun with all the different scrubs and and things like that. And again, you do you. But for us, it really has worked well, and I'll tell you why. Because when we're in facility, we've people know us from a mile away. They feel comfort in knowing, okay, I see the logo, I remember who they are, I know the color. And sometimes for us, like, I think we have all the contracts around us now, but when we didn't, say a decade ago, they used to know that you know, when my foot nurse would be walking down the hallway, they'd go grab or we actually got a contract that way. Because they're like, oh, we see you in here every time. They know who they're looking for, the logo, the color. That has really, really um served well. Okay, so let's zoom out for a second. You might be thinking, but Janice, all of this adds up. And yes, that's the point. The tools you choose are an investment. They either save you time on the job, protect your body from injury, or make your practice look professional, which leads to client retention and referrals. You don't need to buy everything at once, but start with the essentials and build strategically. So ask yourself: does this tool make my job easier, faster, safer, or more professional? If yes, it's worth it. So let's wrap it up. So I'm gonna give you a little bit of an action list or a homework. One, audit your turn your current toolkit, what's helping you versus holding you back? Two, invest in one time saving or ergonomic tool this month. Three, simplify your supplies quality over quantity. Four, show up like the CEO you are in your tools, your appearance, and your systems. And remember, your hands are your business, so protect them with the right tools and the right setup. So if you love this episode, I'd love it if you could share it with another foot care nurse who's building your business. And don't forget to leave a review or message me. Tell me your number one foot care tool you can't live without. Anyway, everybody keep going, keep growing, and remember you are the expert your clients have been waiting for.