soo, is our gait and weight going to be an issue regardless?

I don’t think weight or gait could be an issue when practicing nursing! It may still be dependent on how you take care of your health in general, proper body mechanics and etc, though I am actually curious about the occurrence of weight gain and poor gait among nurses! That can be a good subject for research=)!

That was funny! hahah. sorry.

A picture of a bunch of nurses shuffling was just hilarious. Imagine a flashmob of nurses doing the "Party Rock Anthem"! LOL!

I think it depends on the individual, but I think weight is an issue with many nurses. I have problems with pain, which affects my gait. I feel as if my body is gonna crap out on me due to pain. It prevents me from doing my job more efficiently. Many nurses I work with are in chronic pain mode.

I feel so tired on my days off sometimes that I do not want to exercise at all let alone the 1-3 hours of cardio I used to do and should do. So I have to eat a lot less than I want to not gain weight.

I really haven't noticed that most longtime nurses walk funny. Some crusty old bats end up the skinny, wiry type and some are overweight.

Well, Im one of THEM. But my gait is because my back is shot and I have sciatica. And yes- gained weight since becoming a nurse. And Yes- I'm sure there is a huge connection that I would love to be researched. Shift work, loss of circadian rhythm, excessive amounts of stress hormone, being female, stress eating, bingeing after work because you never got any sort of break during your 14 hour shift and are famished and stressed.
Oh, and in my case, Im so exhausted- I sleep eat and work. sleep eat work and try to sleep some more. Who wants to exercise when you are so wiped out from your job.

I know a few nurses who are overweight, but by and large, (no pun intended) most of us are in good shape.

Nothing like biannual fitness tests as a condition of one's employment to motivate a person to exercise.

question- does your employer make you rotate all 3 shifts during the week? And do you get regular meal breaks at your job.

My point- of course, i have to blame something lol, is , that I wasn't overweight in my previous job, which was almost stress free, regular m-f one shift, two breaks and a full lunch break daily in an 8 hour shift, and no liabilities to worry about. No staying 2 hours past a 12 hour shift, etc.I was fit back then, exercised regularly, and also rode hunter horses( jumping) back then. Oh what I wouldnt give to have that now :-(.

ps. oh , and no, my back probs didnt come from riding- It came from hauling fat a** people ( oh, Im sorry- people of size)who are 500 lbs in their beds. Ever try to push a wheelchair with a 500 lb person in it by yourself? Oh, and elderly who think you can hold them up and fall on you. We've had to incidences of staff being pinned on the floor by them falling on them.( by the way, those staff were skinny- or of less size)We werent designed to do that stuff.

I've noticed that nurses who have been nurses for years generally don't have the same slender bodies and great metabolism they started out with. For instance, I've been a nurse since the mid 70s, and I've gained some weight. My gait has deteriorated . . . that's probably the arthritis in my knees and my spinal stenosis. I don't think I shuffle, but I do limp. Of course, I'm thirty-some years older than I was when I started nursing.

In fact, strangely, I've noticed that most of the nurses who have been working as nurses for thirty years or so are now thirty years or so older than they were when they started.