Within reach: how to configure your practice equipment in an ergonomically practical way

In your daily work life, you are dedicated to ensuring that your patients can walk tall thanks to good health. To make sure that it stays that way, it is important that you customise your workplace to your needs. Without your personal well-being, the 45-minute treatments that are the average length of time in your podiatry or foot care practice could, over the long term, lead to health problems. To improve the ergonomic conditions in your daily work and customise your practice equipment to be more back-friendly, we have put together the most important factors and some important tips for you in this blog post.. 

Why workplace ergonomics is important

Ergonomics is the science of achieving the optimum fit between people and technology, taking into account their working conditions. Especially when it comes to practising your profession, which takes up a large part of your everyday life, it is important to design your technical environment and workflows in a way that is not harmful to your health. Working with podiatry is especially hard on the back when you are sitting for long periods, hunched over, often twisted towards the equipment and the patient, and wearing heavy equipment when making house calls. To avoid tension and relieve the back, it is therefore necessary to set up the practice ergonomically. Besides height-adjustable chairs and Treatment Chair/Couch, the reach zones for the moveable work cabinet with its organisational systems, the attachment of the instrument tray and the magnifying lamp also play an important role from an ergonomic point of view 

Everything under control: the three ergonomic reach zones

As a general rule, it is recommended that the instruments and materials you use most often be in close proximity to you, to enable an upright working posture with your body close to you. According to the ‘Small Ergonomic Data Collection’ of the Federal Institute for Occupational Safety and Health, the workplace can be optimally furnished and positively influenced on the basis of standard dimensions with regard to lighting, room climate and movement zones. The three reach zones also result from these. These characterise the area where you can reach all work equipment without being confident about your location. Taking into account the reach zones and based on our experience, we would like to help you to make your workflows as healthy as possible. 

First reach zone – direct access 

The first reach zone describes the area directly in front of you and at the height of your abdomen, which marks your work centre. Ideally, you should be in an upright seated position here, only have to bend your head slightly, and can perform fine motor actions horizontally and vertically. Here, you are working especially close to your body, which also allows you to lift heavier loads, such as your patient's leg, without a large amount of effort. 

Second reach zone – the extended work centre

All the light instruments that you frequently use in your working environment are perfectly accessible in the second reach zone. Here you should be able to easily reach objects with both hands at an angle to the right and left of your body. 

Third reach zone – the one-handed zone

Everything in the third reach zone can be reached by you with an outstretched arm and can be gripped and operated with one hand. This is where you keep your care products or products that you only need once during the treatment, for example.

Intelligent fitting: how and where to configure and attach magnifying lamps and other equipment in an ergonomic and practical way that takes into account the room climate

To attach magnifying lamps, such as the PODOLOG CIRCLE XL professional, your podiatry drill and your instrument tray perfectly to your work cabinet from an ergonomic point of view, we have taken the three reach zones into account in advance and would like to give you the following tips and advice on configuring and mounting your RUCK® ROOM move or RUCK® ROOM light. Please note that you should interpret the recommendations in reverse if you are left-handed 

The Magnifying Lamp

To ensure optimum illumination of your work area, it is recommended that the magnifying lamp be attached diagonally to your Podiatry Drill. For a right-handed individual, this means mounting the lamp at the back on the left side of your work cabinet so that you can pull it from above to reach the work area. If you attach the lamp on the right side, it has to reach across the entire work surface of the cabinet, which would cost you too much of the lamp's reach. Another benefit of the recommended placement is that the lamp appears to contact the area from outside the room, which contributes to a more harmonious lighting and thus to a comfortable room climate. If it were mounted on the back right, it would cross the treatment room in an unfavourable way. To customise your personal effective range as flexibly as possible, depending on the treatment situation, the lamp head of your magnifying lamp should be ready for repositioning from the first to the third reach zone.

The Podiatry Drill 

Installing the podiatry drill on the right side of the cabinet is practical because frequent operation is made easier thanks to its proximity to you as the practitioner, and you can make optimum use of the length of the suction hose. The second reach zone used here allows you to reach the Podiatry Drill well. It is also recommended that the handpiece holder and the waste bin be mounted on the right to ensure proximity to you and the Podiatry Drill. 

The cabinet surface and the instrument tray  

To use all the mounting options within this reach zone and to reach total capacity of the ergonomic workplace design, the connector set can be attached to the RUCK® ROOM move or RUCK® ROOM light. Since the module is attached to the mounting points provided instead on the front left or right of the cabinet, we recommend placing the magnifying lamp on the left in this case, so that the instrument tray is on the front right and thus as close to your body as possible.

Work ergonomically and stay in motion

Thanks to practice equipment configured in an ergonomically practical way, the optimum working posture can be positively influenced, which contributes greatly to your physical health. However, there is no such thing as the perfect practitioner position, because the best one is always the next one. So avoid rigid and repetitive sitting positions and move around in all directions instead. Thanks to body dynamics, your muscles are activated, blood circulation is stimulated and metabolism is increased. More motion can be integrated into your daily work life entirely easily: for example, you could resolve to perform one treatment per day while standing. 

We will be happy to help you with any questions you may have about the practical ergonomic configuration and assembly of your practice equipment.