Hospital Won't Hire Obese Workers

Nurses General Nursing

Published

http://www.texastribune.org/texas-health-resources/health-reform-and-texas/victoria-hospital-wont-hire-very-obese-workers/

I'm not sure this link will take you to the article, but I read it this morning and couldn't believe my eyes! Seems a few lawsuits will be coming their way along with the race discrimination one in place already. What do you all think about it?

its not easy to type and then get autocorrected on a cell phone, but I do understand your point

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Specializes in PICU, Sedation/Radiology, PACU.
i stand behind my words, i could care less about the cry babies i may upset.

patients want to see a staff that resembles good health. how does an overweight nurse, or doctor, or any other member of the staff resemble good health. with that, how is a member of the staff of a medical facility that does not outwardly resemble good health able to portray the messages and education effectively. they cant, the patients will see the person and a lot of the time ignore the message, the nurse is teaching them about there nutrition, or blood pressure or cholesterol.

its very hard to trust you, with your complete lack of grammar and spelling skills.

there actually aren't any spelling errors in that post. there are grammatical errors, but notjustanurse, you also failed to appropriately put an apostrophe in the word "its" in your reply. we all make mistakes. grammatical errors and spelling have nothing to do with the validity of one's opinion or argument.

let's please try to keep this to professional debate, rather than resort to name calling and insulting each other's grammar and intelligence.

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Yikes! In that case, the patients who are over 65 may also like that their caretakers be white but too bad we can't bend to their will due to that pesky Constitution and Civil Rights Act.

I was REALLY hoping there was a more practical reason for this discrimination. I may have even sided with it. Maybe.

Actually they can, I had a pt who was a white supremicist recently and they did bend to this patient's will =/

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Specializes in ICU, Telemetry, PACU, Med-Surg.

I'm happy someone caught the mistake in my post. Read "spectrabrite's" comment again, there is a spelling error, and many grammatical errors. For us "fatties" spectrabrite's comments are insulting, so I stand behind my comment as well.

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Specializes in PICU, Sedation/Radiology, PACU.
I'm happy someone caught the mistake in my post. Read "spectrabrite's" comment again, there is a spelling error, and many grammatical errors. For us "fatties" spectrabrite's comments are insulting, so I stand behind my comment as well.

My comment about avoiding insults and keeping the debate professional applied to all posters involved in this discussion, not just you.

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Specializes in Peds Homecare.

Can someone explain why Texas is always on the "cutting edge" of discrimination? I'm so glad I live in NY. So all you sknnies out there watch out, they'll think of a way to get at you too. As has been said many, many times, it's a slippery slope. I hope Texas runs out of nurses to hire. Just because you are skinny, it doesn't make you a good nurse, not for one minute! I forgot, this is the state that allows you to be out hunting, shoot someone in the face, and get away with it. Wonder what the next thing will be?

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It's also the state where "everything's big!"

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This is a subject that can and will elicit many passionate responses and can be handled rationally if we can be honest about the issue. This is not a skinny vs fat issue nor is about an obese nurse not working as hard as a skinny nurse. Like another poster said a BMI 35 and above IS NOT healthy for anyone and that is a fact. And really most of us do gain some extra weight as we age due to many different reasons but to be at a BMI of 35 and above is not just midlife or even post baby weight gain it is a health hazard and needs to be addressed as such.

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Specializes in ER, ICU.

It's too bad the hospital in question is focused on appearance, when they could make it about physically being able to do your job. Nursing can be quite physical. I took an extensive physical assessment when I was hired at my current job and I'm sure I couldn't have completed it if I was obese.

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Specializes in ICU, Trauma, ER, Peds, Family Practice.

My doctor's office has 2 very obese medical assistances. She praises their work and their professionalism . They are are their feet most of the day, schedule appointments, draw blood etc. I applaud her for hiring these 2 women. Just wanted to mention this.

When I entered nursing school they would not admit obese students and if you gained too much weight they would give you a warning to loose weight.

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I believe when someone is being considered for a managment position( including the position of CEO) they should be screened for honesty, integrity, good work ethics, and non abusive traits as well as not being greedy. All managment who are now employed and showing signs of dishonesty, greed, self-centeredness( aka "Me,Me,and Me) and a positive work ethic should be offered help in the way of a 12 step program and their managment courses remediated and if after 6 months via employee satisfation scores in the 98% and they can not perform correctly( aka straighten out and fly right) they should be shown the door.

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Too bad appearances are so important these days. Some of the sweetest, best nurses I have ever known have been overweight. And they certainly did not shirk their work.

Also, every obese person I know has tried to lose weight. Should they live in a cave until they are "acceptable" to everyone? Making it harder for them to get a job won't help their mental health, their morale, or their weight loss efforts.

As for representing good health to a patient, I know there would be more empathy from an overweight nurse toward a patient struggling with the same issues. Who can say that the patient/nurse relationship forged would not be more effectual than one where the patient felt lectured by a thin nurse talking about a problem she has never experienced?

I stand behind my words, I could care less about the cry babies I may upset.

Patients want to see a staff that resembles good health. How does an overweight nurse, or doctor, or any other member of the staff resemble good health. With that, how is a member of the staff of a medical facility that does not outwardly resemble good health able to portray the messages and education effectively. They cant, the patients will see the person and a lot of the time ignore the message, the nurse is teaching them about there nutrition, or blood pressure or cholesterol.

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