Extremely Overweight Nurses

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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

I see the OP hasn't come back to this thread. I guess she didn't really want to play with us. She just wanted to throw a hand grenade and run. How sad.

True^^^^

Specializes in Correctional, QA, Geriatrics.

First point healh care workers are not role models for patients anymore than a mechanic is for a car owner or an electrician for a home owner, etc. If the only basis for selecting a role model is based on appearance that is so superficial as to be meaningless.

Secondly as an obese person myself I promise you I am aware of how I look, how I do performing certain tasks, etc. My weight issues are more from simply what and how much I eat. I have a few medical conditions that require medications that lead to such things as impaired blood sugar levels and fluid retention. In actuality what impairs my ability to be at bedside anymore is not my overall size but my orthopedic injuries and arthritis resulting from the trauma of nearly 30 years in direct patient care. Even if I was reed slim I wouldn't be able to be bedside anymore because my back, hips, knees can't stand the stress of working on concrete floors and lifting, pushing, pulling and bending constantly. In other words working as a nurse and working night shift for most of my career until the last 10 years damaged me physically. It impaired my bones and messed up my GI tract. So now I do non direct care that doesn't impose so many stressors on my battered body. Dealing with chronic pain has also stimulated my appetite for "comfort foods" when my pain levels become near intolerable.

Third thing even when a persons body isn't damaged by life or work experiences losing more than 30 pounds is not easy for anyone. Much of the food available either from restaurants or mainstream grocery stores is not as nutritious or healthy as it was in my childhood. It is a challenge to find healthy nutritious food whenever I am on the road for my job since hotels and restaurants in smaller to very small towns don't cater to "the health food crowd". Shoot it can be hard to find healthy food even in the large urban area I live in when I am home. I will confess when I am tired, hungry and thirsty it is much easier to buy a diet soda and a hamburger than drive around trying to find somewhere that has a decent salad that is more than iceburg lettuce and cheese and croutons.

If you feel what I have written is all excuses, well I can't make you think differently. I would hope you have learned that a persons ability to perform and what they can contribute is compromised of much more than having a height/weight proportionate body. Please remember many of us extremely fat nurses didn't start our careers this way. And I dare say few of us really choose to be "supersized".

Talk about killing the messenger! The OP is generally correct with his/her statements.Sure, there are always exceptions. So, please enlighten me with the specifics as to which statement by the OP put a bee in your bonnet.

1. I’ve been seeing a lot of obese nurses lately. 2. In my opinion it's not setting the right example. 3. If someone codes or there's a fire a nurses who is huge can't run to get to/from the emergency. 4. Another example ... CPR! It's exhausting. 5. If you're not fit to do it...should that patient pay the price? It's so hypocritical. 6. I understand with long shifts and not much sleep... Gaining weight is extremely easy to do. 7. However, choosing healthy food options (not vending machines and Pepsi’s) and staying active even on your days off is important.

We have a nurse that works in the OR who can't even keep her mask up because she smokes like a freight train! She is more impaired than any obese nurse I've ever seen!

Talk about killing the messenger! The OP is generally correct with his/her statements.Sure, there are always exceptions. So, please enlighten me with the specifics as to which statement by the OP put a bee in your bonnet.

1. I’ve been seeing a lot of obese nurses lately. 2. In my opinion it's not setting the right example. 3. If someone codes or there's a fire a nurses who is huge can't run to get to/from the emergency. 4. Another example ... CPR! It's exhausting. 5. If you're not fit to do it...should that patient pay the price? It's so hypocritical. 6. I understand with long shifts and not much sleep... Gaining weight is extremely easy to do. 7. However, choosing healthy food options (not vending machines and Pepsi’s) and staying active even on your days off is important.

I have to agree.

I don't think the OP was saying that an overweight nurse isn't capable of being a good nurse-

But as caregivers we aught to be setting an example for those we are caring for.

I come from a place of non-judgment. Every single person in my family is overweight with the exception of 4 of us. And we 4 live totally different lifestyles than everyone else- by choice. You don't need to be thin to be healthy and active.

We are all human. Nurses, Drs, teachers, electricians are all subject to the same lifestyle and health issues. Drugs, alcoholism, obesity... But aren't these issues choices? We aren't born that way are we?

As someone who has lost about 40 pounds from her peak weight- I had to take responsibility for my lifestyle and stop making excuses. If I didn't I would have ended up like every woman in my family!

A vast majority of obese persons are in the spot they are in because they have made poor lifestyle choices. Sure there are factors such as depression or other physiological issues that start the snowball effect- but not everyone is subject to HAVING to live life in that manor.

But why people are obese isn't the issue. It's the whole "Do as I say, not as I do" mentality. Why in the world would i take advice from a medical provider who does t follow his own teaching? Or trust a dentist who has bad teeth? Why choose a lifestyle that inhibits life?

My first year of college I had an amazing teacher for med term that I absolutely adored. She is an RN. I think about her often. She was at the extreme end of morbidly obese- she was to the point that her skin wouldn't heal itself and she could barely breathe as she walked down the hall. But she came to class everyday with a super sized McDonald's Coke.

Sure she taught well and was likable. But half

The time all I could think of was that this woman's knows the consequences of her actions, she sees it at work everyday, yet she is still making those choices. Why? She's one of the lucky ones who KNOWS what poor lifestyle choices can do to you unlike most Americans who are slightly/mostly oblivious. It's hard to respect that. And although her size never limited her knowledge or standard of care given, it limited the way she could perform her tasks. She couldn't bend over or move easily. And I can only imagine that in small patient rooms there would even be issues with coworkers being able to move freely.

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First point healh care workers are not role models for patients anymore than a mechanic is for a car owner or an electrician for a home owner, etc. If the only basis for selecting a role model is based on appearance that is so superficial as to be meaningless.

I have to completely disagree with this. Health care providers are role models, most especially doctors and nurses. Nurses are teachers of health. We teach our diabetic and obese patients about diet, exercise, and comorbidities, etc. My car mechanic simply does a job. I drop my car off, he or she fixes it without teaching me how to take care of it myself. My electrician fixes the electrical issues in my house but does not teach me how to do it. We teach our patients how to care for themselves. If we aren't doing that, we are being hypocritical. I too am overweight and have approximately 30 pounds to lose. I eat fast food more often than I should and I have difficulty following any sort of exercise regimen. It is hypocritical of me to tell a patient that is obese what to eat and how active to be when I don't do so myself. I am there to teach and show them how to properly care for themselves and their medical conditions. Health care professionals are role models for health care. It's exceptionally hypocritical for a nurse to teach a patient with COPD about the hazards of smoking while smelling like an ash tray. Obesity is the same. It is not discrimination to say so. It's certainly not about how someone looks. For me, it's about credibility. I lose credibility with my patients teaching a lifestyle I choose not to follow.

Specializes in Public Health, TB.

I suspect the OP was merely fulfilling a class assignment. As an unintended consequence, she/he has provoked an interesting convo. So who is the bad guy here? The obese nurse? The vending machine company? People with prejudices? High fructose corn syrup?

Osama bin laden

Specializes in ICU.

If you want to be a health nut role model, then you will not be working as a nurse. Stress, poor sleep patterns, forced into lousy diet choices. BAH!

Osama bin laden

Yes... it is all Osama Bin Laden's fault for the fat people in the world...

Damn you Bin Laden and you making us fat, from the grave...

Talk about killing the messenger! The OP is generally correct with his/her statements.Sure, there are always exceptions. So, please enlighten me with the specifics as to which statement by the OP put a bee in your bonnet.

1. I've been seeing a lot of obese nurses lately. 2. In my opinion it's not setting the right example. 3. If someone codes or there's a fire a nurses who is huge can't run to get to/from the emergency. 4. Another example ... CPR! It's exhausting. 5. If you're not fit to do it...should that patient pay the price? It's so hypocritical. 6. I understand with long shifts and not much sleep... Gaining weight is extremely easy to do. 7. However, choosing healthy food options (not vending machines and Pepsi's) and staying active even on your days off is important.

First of all, it's being more than a little melodramatic to say that "patients pay the price" with unfit nurses. I've seen codes. I've seen obese nurses. I've seen obese nurses/other staff respond to codes. I've never seen a patient "pay the price" because their obese nurse isn't a marathon winner. And neither have you. Again, melodramatic.

And, yes, CPR is exhausting. That's why we take turns with compressions. I've seen obese nurses get winded and sweaty with compressions, but so what? I've also seen plenty of waif-thin emaciated nurses who have to practically get a running start to perform a proper compression. They're sweaty and exhausted five minutes in, too. Again, we take turns.

I work with some obese CNAs whose job is more physical than you could ever imagine in your wildest dreams. They move, dress, turn, transfer and clean immobile patients who are sheer dead weight. I've never once, ever, had an experience where their obesity resulted in any patient receiving sub par care. Not ever.

You're gonna have to come up with a better line than "CPR is hard" to convince me obese nurses pose a "risk" to their patients.

As for the whole "hypocritical" thing..... whatever. If you follow that train of thought to it's logical conclusion only human who are perfect without any vices should be allowed to be nurses. We're not role models or paragons of virtue or something. We're human. Being judgmental is a vice, too, you know.

Specializes in Pediatrics, Emergency, Trauma.
I suspect the OP was merely fulfilling a class assignment. As an unintended consequence she/he has provoked an interesting convo. So who is the bad guy here? The obese nurse? The vending machine company? People with prejudices? High fructose corn syrup?[/quote']

Osama bin laden

If you want to be a health nut role model then you will not be working as a nurse. Stress, poor sleep patterns, forced into lousy diet choices. BAH![/quote']

Yes... it is all Osama Bin Laden's fault for the fat people in the world...

Damn you Bin Laden and you making us fat, from the grave...

:roflmao:

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