The War On Fat

Nurses General Nursing

Published

To make a long story short I am a student and I write quite a bit about the experience of becoming a nurse.

So with that being said I have decided due to some recent developments that I am going to write about the cultural war on fat focused on nursing.

I am acquainted with a woman who is a critical care nurse. I have to tolerate her toxic presence in my life due to her association with my dude's friend. Now, I would like to mention I am no small girl and have gained and lost, and gained again 100lbs. I have finally gotten to the point where I am not beating myself up about it and see efforts now as a matter of love for my body rather than hate. Recently she said this (to me of all people), "I hate fat people so much. They smell, they are hard to move around, and I think they should all die in a hole somewhere."

A member of my clinical group said, "You know these doctors will get upset at the COPD patient who is smoking like three cigarettes a day but say nothing to these fatties who don't follow their diets." I stood up, looked very serious for a moment and said, "HEY! I am one of those fatties that don't follow their diet." Then we went a few rounds with her saying she wasn't talking about me because I am "an attractive fatty."

What does my face have to do with my extra 100lbs? Seriously?

In any case I'd like an open dialog about the war on fat in nursing.

Do you see it in your practice? Are you militant anti-fat? If so why?

I've noticed that a good deal of the arguments that I've heard is fat is unhealthy, yet no one seems to see fat as being a symptom and not the disease.

There have been a few times friends and family have made racist comments in front of me, and when it was brought to their attention, I was informed that they weren't talking about ME! They don't think of me as a REAL black person, I'm different, or the good kind, or whatever. I'm not a super sensitive person, but it still irks me. I don't WANT to be an exception...I want you to grow up and realize you're harboring some serious prejudices against people! Ugh. Sorry for the slightly unrelated vent.

Really??

Yikes...I mean I hope you don't get on their bad side one day, because those epithets may be used to describe you :crying2:

Sometimes you wonder how we get to old age and still hold narrow views like that! A shame.

Specializes in Forensic Psych.

Really??

Yikes...I mean I hope you don't get on their bad side one day, because those epithets may be used to describe you :crying2:

Sometimes you wonder how we get to old age and still hold narrow views like that! A shame.

True story. It's hard to wrap your head around, but the worst offender by far has been my own mother.

I'm mortified every time I think about my childhood best friend. In 3rd grade, I told her I wasn't going to play with her anymore because she was black. Just following orders from home.

In middle school, I was forced to break up with my Filipino "boyfriend" because I needed to be with someone with "lighter skin.". I was raised to only check the "Caucasian" box on forms that asked for race. And I was told I should be grateful I never knew my father and his side of the family because our lifestyle doesn't coincide with black people's lifestyle of sitting on the porch doing nothing all day. No lie.

My father in law is similar. He loves me and his (also mixed) grandchildren, but he's used the N word in front of me a few times, only to say he wasn't talking about us, of course.

And that's just scratching the surface! :p

Anyway, I just think that's an interesting part of human nature. Rather than seeing exceptions to our prejudices as proof that our thinking is over generalized and incorrect, people are fully capable of taking the exceptions and putting them into a DIFFERENT category so they can keep on hating.

No thank you.

BlueGrassRN. I have to say, I really respect your attitude toward the topic at hand. It's easy to become a little jaded by the negative attitudes I've encountered (and I'm sure I'll always encounter) on the path to becoming a nurse. So I appreciate the good :).

Crazed, I meant to add that I've been in situations similar to you. Not about weight, but I'm a mix-y...half black/half white. There have been a few times friends and family have made racist comments in front of me, and when it was brought to their attention, I was informed that they weren't talking about ME! They don't think of me as a REAL black person, I'm different, or the good kind, or whatever. I'm not a super sensitive person, but it still irks me. I don't WANT to be an exception...I want you to grow up and realize you're harboring some serious prejudices against people! Ugh. Sorry for the slightly unrelated vent.

My youngest brother is mixed, half black and half white. Everyone knows it. Yet I have also had people tell me racist jokes and use the N work around me. I am quick to remind them that I have no tolerace for that kind of hate.

Specializes in Critical Care.

Nurses are not "examples" for our patients. It is not a job requirement! We're humans and have flaws and the job itself is inherently unhealthy and stressful to begin with! We are being bombard with sensory overload with constant jarring alarms, jumping from room to room and patient to patient, everyone pulling at us at the same time, expected to sacrifice sleep, meals, breaks and to be superhuman and work 16 hours at the drop of the hat because the hospital is short staffed.

So this BS about being healthy examples for patients is an underhanded way to judge others for not being in perfectly thin and healthy shiny role model's ie trophy nurses to showcase for nurses week who appear magically healthy, happy, thin and stressfree while being a martyr for the hospitals benefit. Give me a break!

It doesn't take a rocket science to realize nursing is bad for your health and health studies have born this out and that shift work and stress is linked to obesity, HTN (alarms as well), cardiovascular disease and cancer to name a few. We are hired for our brains, bodies, and our shiny nursing license, but we are easily replaceable!

Yes we can all make healthful changes in our lifestyle at least to some degree, but the truth is most obese people will never be thin save drastic actions like the biggest loser or gastric bypass surgery and instead of attacking obese people, we need to accept this and demand that our employer provide safe, adequate lift equipment to care for them without injuring ourselves.

Specializes in Critical Care; Cardiac; Professional Development.

I am not prejudiced but I got an acute understanding last night how one becomes so. A 320 lb patient who insists they are too heavy to help move themself but gets upset when I cannot help position them for comfort every 20 minutes or so. Even with two of us and trendelenberg I have a sore back the likes of which I have never known. I had no problem telling the patient tonight that there would be no repositioning without four people to help and that would take time to gather. They sulked a great deal but I am afraid I do not feel bad at all. I will not sacrifice my health for my patients.

Specializes in Emergency Room.

To the OP - I think your wording of "war on fat" and "militant anti-fat" is a little bit extreme. Perhaps there are nurses like this, but I personally have never met any. A lot of people on AN have wondered why nurses "hate" on fat people and I think that is a very strong word too. As you mentioned, you are a student, and probably have not had a ton of exposure to a huge variety of patients. However, once you have, you will probably understand the frustration of dealing with certain patient populations - such as the morbidly obese. And I don't mean "heavy" or "chunky" or "could stand to lose 50lbs". Whatever the reason is that caused this person to be upwards of 400lbs doesn't change the fact that our job is now waaaay harder. I'm in no way negating their psychological over-eating, or their hormone imbalances, or whatever. But it is frustrating when 10 staff members have to stop patient care in order to transfer a >700lb woman to a bed. Or when 5 people have to hold up a man's belly in order to find his member. Or when we injure our backs trying to boost a 400lb woman. I don't think most nurses are hateful or militant. I think they are frustrated at an already difficult job being made a lot more difficult, regardless of the background reason of how the person got that way.

Just yesterday we "coded" a young woman who was morbidly obese (350-400lbs). We knew nothing about her history, so no idea how she got that way. However, it was the most traumatic code for both patient and staff, as we were unsuccessful obtaining an airway through intubation, and it took multiple attempts to "crike" her which was finally achieved by ENT, due to her neck size. Additionally we could hardly do chest compressions because her breasts and belly were so huge. Her arms and legs were literally falling off the stretcher and we had to keep catching them. Unfortunately, we were not able to resucitate her (despite seriously heroic measures) and she passed away. Of course, no one can say that things would have definitely turned out differently, but intubation was attempted as soon as she became unresponsive, and in a smaller person with a less difficult airway that could've been enough, she may never have gone into cardiac arrest, may never have needed the crike and she may have lived. The point I am trying to make is that obesity complicates everything, and makes our job of trying to help our patients so very difficult.

Specializes in Emergency Room.
If my doctor had recommended that I lose weight, I would have shot back with, "Pay for my gym membership and hire Michael Symon (drools!) to come and cook healthy meals for me!" Huh, huh.

People change their ways when they are darn good and ready to.

Seriously?? So you'd have expected your doctor to arrange for your weight loss?? What ever happened to a person's own accountability and desire to help themselves? This is a huge problem that I encounter all the time. Patients come in and expect us to fix them. I'm sorry, but your health requires effort on your part, too. We are not here to fix them, but to educate and help them. Too often they are not willing to put even a minimal effort into their health. Sad.

Specializes in Forensic Psych.

Seriously?? So you'd have expected your doctor to arrange for your weight loss?? What ever happened to a person's own accountability and desire to help themselves? This is a huge problem that I encounter all the time. Patients come in and expect us to fix them. I'm sorry, but your health requires effort on your part, too. We are not here to fix them, but to educate and help them. Too often they are not willing to put even a minimal effort into their health. Sad.

When my midwife put me on bed rest, I asked her to come cook, clean, and nanny my kids for me.

She induced me the next morning.

Some nurses are so lazy.

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