Extremely Overweight Nurses

Nurses Career Support

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I've been seeing a lot of obese nurses lately. In my opinion it's not setting the right example,not is it SAFE. If someone codes or there's a fire a nurses who is huge can't run to get to/from the emergency. Another example ... CPR ! It's exhausting,if you're not fit to do it...should that patient pay the price? It's so hypocritical. I understand with long shifts and not much sleep... Gaining weight is extremely easy to do. However,choosing healthy food options ( not vending machines and pepsis) and staying active even on your days off is important.

The end

Specializes in Critical Care, ED, Cath lab, CTPAC,Trauma.
Dude, when was the last time you worked bedside???

SHE is presently employed there.

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The OP would just love working with me.....obese, diabetic, asthmatic, arthritic, AND bipolar to boot. And yet somehow, I work with a building full of people---residents, families, and staff alike---who literally trust me with their lives. What's wrong with this picture?? :whistling:

except for the bipolar you've just described me - and I'm a new grad *gasp* the horror!!!

grow up OP! if someone's saving your loved one's life you're not going to care if they have green skin or 3 heads....

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LOL! I just advanced to p.3 to read some more postings and noticed an ad on the right for Laser Liposuction.

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Ah, weight. One of the few remaining accepted forms of discrimination. This person would have been kicked off the forum for saying the same thing about gay nurses, nurses of color, or nurses of a certain faith, and I'm kind of wishing they were kicked off for this. This form of discrimination is still acceptable enough that this is not the case.

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Some people can handle being a little overweight and still be quite active and capable. Others can handle being obese and still be quite active and capable. If however you are not at a "healthy" weight and you KNOW it is affecting your job performance (bending down to empty a foley, preforming CPR, discussing healthy lifestyle changes with a pt.) Then you need to do something to change it rather than get upset because someone else noticed it and made a comment. It's shouldn't be considered discrimination if it's true. I also think it should go both ways. I can't even count the number of obese patients I've taken care of that nurses have made comments about them needing to control their weight and eating habits. If a nurse can judge a patient for their choices, then patients can judge us for ours. I went to a doctor once who had to be pushing 400 lbs and it was hard listening to him tell me about a normal amount of weight to gain while pregnant and scold me for eating cheese because of the cholesterol in it. Like it or not, people and patients are judging you for your choices... just like the nurses who are doing assessments while smelling like an ashtray. When I was a PCT I had more than one patient make a comment to me about how bad the nurse smelled and wanted a different one. It was hard for me to go tell the nurse even though she needed to know. As bad as it hurts, sometimes you need to hear the truth.

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Some people can handle being a little overweight and still be quite active and capable. Others can handle being obese and still be quite active and capable. If however you are not at a "healthy" weight and you KNOW it is affecting your job performance (bending down to empty a foley preforming CPR, discussing healthy lifestyle changes with a pt.) Then you need to do something to change it rather than get upset because someone else noticed it and made a comment. It's shouldn't be considered discrimination if it's true. I also think it should go both ways. I can't even count the number of obese patients I've taken care of that nurses have made comments about them needing to control their weight and eating habits. If a nurse can judge a patient for their choices, then patients can judge us for ours. I went to a doctor once who had to be pushing 400 lbs and it was hard listening to him tell me about a normal amount of weight to gain while pregnant and scold me for eating cheese because of the cholesterol in it. Like it or not, people and patients are judging you for your choices... just like the nurses who are doing assessments while smelling like an ashtray. When I was a PCT I had more than one patient make a comment to me about how bad the nurse smelled and wanted a different one. It was hard for me to go tell the nurse even though she needed to know. As bad as it hurts, sometimes you need to hear the truth.[/quote']

Right on point

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Specializes in Emergency/Cath Lab.

Ah the "image" of a nurse.....

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Specializes in ER, Med-surg.

I wonder if the OP is an aide or has actually seen an obese or "extremely overweight" nurse in action. I am admittedly an "extremely overweight" nursing student and CNA at a hospital and my weight has not affected my performance in my incredibly physical job. Once in awhile my big butt might bump into the computers in the patient rooms but other than that, I would say that I do an excellent job. I also work with a few "extremely overweight" nurses and they work their tails off! Some of the best nurses I know are "extremely overweight". Weight has nothing to do with their nursing skills...however attitude definitely does. Some thin as well as obese nurses have the worst attitudes and it makes them incredibly undesirable to work with.

OP if you hate fat people so much, I would really keep it to yourself. Just a heads-up for your future career.

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Specializes in Hospice / Psych / RNAC.

Well it's done...obesity is now a disease.

https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=6&cad=rja&sqi=2&ved=0CEwQFjAF&url=http%3A%2F%2Farticles.washingtonpost.com%2F2013-06-28%2Fopinions%2F40253647_1_obese-patients-nutrition-unhealthy-weight&ei=Q6_hUaqiCYXEigLQg4H4AQ&usg=AFQjCNHtMIS-8nPHw5juP8kGzSgXbGSRLw&sig2=FNo6TrJKEZVZdMskHDcG2g

Yep, now everyone can eat up and claim disability. I am of the school that it's an addiction like drugs (alcohol is a drug). I think this opens up validation for people with eating problems. I'm not talking about mental health issues which is where I think this belongs. I too don't like to see overweight anybody. It sends a wrong message to our kids. If we as adults can't control what goes in our mouths claiming we are healthy and feel fine and comfortable being overweight simply because our cholesterol isn't up...well, I just think this is not the way to go.

Everyone or mostly everyone has vehemently defended the right to be fat; I don't think people are sincerely taking the big picture into account.

Modeling is how our children learn and eventually live. Is it a wonder that it's all getting out of control? I worry for our children.

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Well it's done...obesity is now a disease.

https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=6&cad=rja&sqi=2&ved=0CEwQFjAF&url=http%3A%2F%2Farticles.washingtonpost.com%2F2013-06-28%2Fopinions%2F40253647_1_obese-patients-nutrition-unhealthy-weight&ei=Q6_hUaqiCYXEigLQg4H4AQ&usg=AFQjCNHtMIS-8nPHw5juP8kGzSgXbGSRLw&sig2=FNo6TrJKEZVZdMskHDcG2g

Yep, now everyone can eat up and claim disability. I am of the school that it's an addiction like drugs (alcohol is a drug). I think this opens up validation for people with eating problems. I'm not talking about mental health issues which is where I think this belongs. I too don't like to see overweight anybody. It sends a wrong message to our kids. If we as adults can't control what goes in our mouths claiming we are healthy and feel fine and comfortable being overweight simply because our cholesterol isn't up...well, I just think this is not the way to go.

Everyone or mostly everyone has vehemently defended the right to be fat; I don't think people are sincerely taking the big picture into account.

Modeling is how our children learn and eventually live. Is it a wonder that it's all getting out of control? I worry for our children.

This actually really surprised me! I expected all the "don't judge" comments, but I didn't expect people to say being fat benefited them in any way... that is the deluded way of thinking that will get us nowhere in terms of bettering the health of this country.

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Weight is a very sensitive topic. Yes, we should eat healthier and maintain a healthy weight but I don't think that people should treat others different, harshly, make fun of them, think they are incapable of doing their job because of their weight. Obesity is a problem but so is bullying and discrimination.

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Specializes in LTC.
Well it's done...obesity is now a disease.

https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=6&cad=rja&sqi=2&ved=0CEwQFjAF&url=http%3A%2F%2Farticles.washingtonpost.com%2F2013-06-28%2Fopinions%2F40253647_1_obese-patients-nutrition-unhealthy-weight&ei=Q6_hUaqiCYXEigLQg4H4AQ&usg=AFQjCNHtMIS-8nPHw5juP8kGzSgXbGSRLw&sig2=FNo6TrJKEZVZdMskHDcG2g

Yep, now everyone can eat up and claim disability. I am of the school that it's an addiction like drugs (alcohol is a drug). I think this opens up validation for people with eating problems. I'm not talking about mental health issues which is where I think this belongs. I too don't like to see overweight anybody. It sends a wrong message to our kids. If we as adults can't control what goes in our mouths claiming we are healthy and feel fine and comfortable being overweight simply because our cholesterol isn't up...well, I just think this is not the way to go.

Everyone or mostly everyone has vehemently defended the right to be fat; I don't think people are sincerely taking the big picture into account.

Modeling is how our children learn and eventually live. Is it a wonder that it's all getting out of control? I worry for our children.

I posted a link a page or so back, it's a TedMed talk given by a surgeon on the care and treatment of obesity, it focuses on Type 2 treatment and research, but it also goes into an interesting idea about how and why people become obese. The idea is the blame/shame/addiction treatment model isn't working. It's talking about a whole new outlook on how we treat the overweight (and Type 2 diabetes).

I would not say that being overweight is healthy, but I am saying that, perhaps our ideas about why people who are overweight get that way in the first place is very, very flawed. Perhaps teaching children from birth to call overweight people lazy is also flawed, as it only perpetuates the blame/shame model of treatment. That model is obviously not working... Or obesity would not be an epidemic.

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