How important is your 'look' as a nurse

Ruby Vee, BSN · May 13, 2014

What does this have to do with the hiring process! So basically you are saying only healthy perfect people, perfect weight, health appearance should be hired and working as a nurse? So all the unhealthy workers should what be fired? So should all the unhealthy be banned from working as a nurse because they are bad "role models". And if that includes the overweight that includes 2/3 of the population and what do you suggest they do to make a living and to have health insurance? Should they be banned from working and end up on medicaid? Should people be given ultimatums ie lose this much weight, quit drinking, quit smoking or you're fired? And what do you suggest should be done about the unfortunate nurses who develop cancer or MS or some other disease that isn't because of a weakness on their part? Are they allowed to keep working or should they be fired because they are unhealthy? Who will be taking care of the patients then? Let alone who will be working then!
Nurses are merely human, we are not supermodels of virtue or health, just ordinary people with problems like any other person! We don't like being compared to angels by management for nursing week or a PR boost for the hospital. I don't think we should be viewed as role models for health as if we had some magic elixir of health because we are nurses because we don't! Health is fragile and you can think you are just fine one day and the next get a cancer diagnosis or have a heart attack or stroke. Being healthcare workers doesn't make us immune from disease!

Well, if all the fat, unhealthy nurses were fired, there'd be plenty of jobs for all those unemployed, young, fit new grads. Of course, there wouldn't be any crusty old bats to precept them!

spinny87 · May 13, 2014

I'm skinny and my appearance to me matters greatly. However, I have hypertension and high cholesterol. So physical looks cannot accurately tell how healthy a person is.

brandy1017, ASN, RN · May 13, 2014

Although I know for a fact that being overweight has nothing to do with a person's ability to perform as a nurse...
You couldn't convince me that you wouldn't bat an eye if a dentist with rotten teeth was lecturing you about the benefits of daily flossing.

Give me a break! A dentist would never have rotten teeth because they have the money and resources to keep their teeth shiny and white and perfect. Health is not so easy to attain and even all the money in the world isn't going to make someone healthy! I did not become a nurse to be a role model. If you want a health role model go to the gym and gaze at the fitness instructor!

crossfitnurse · May 13, 2014

You all should stop making excuses for your own opinions and just shut the H up.

Who cares.

Worry about yourself. If your fat, great. If you're not. Great.

Let's just all accept that yes, being overweight does have health risks. So does EVERYTHING ELSE. So does under eating. So does working out too much.

But I forget - we all know everything right? Sometimes - I think this blog needs a liiiiittle more open-mindedness and compassion.

But I will say my five guys burger and Cajun fries were AMAZING.

#homocysteinefordays

*goes back to studying*

brandy1017, ASN, RN · May 13, 2014

Seems like the long hours on your feet, constant stress, patient families, and inhumane shifts can make people fat and tempermental. If that what this job does, they can take it and shove it![/quote
Well if you're worried you can always change your profession now while your still thin and healthy! I'm amazed how superior thin people feel. I'm not a smoker, but I don't feel superior to smokers, nor do I denigrate them! But why do thin people always have to show disdain for those who aren't thin like them. One would think being one of the lucky ones with all the advantages of thinness, beauty and societal favor one would be content with that, but no there is this perverse need to denigrate others who aren't as favored!

brandy1017, ASN, RN · May 13, 2014

Esme, I'm so sorry about what you've been dealing with. I would NEVER make fun of you and noone else SHOULD either!!! Sorry if my post offended you. I thought I was speaking in a general nonassuming way. One of my brothers has an autoimmune disorder called Wegener's disease since age 21. He's always on prednisone and so he has the accompanying Cushing syndrome on top of his underlying health issues. He even had to have a hip replacement in his early 20s d/t the effect of the calcium deficiency those high steroid doses caused. Some people are very insensitive and rude. A couple of older men actually had the nerve to make fun of my brother's gait! .... he gets so upset sometimes. We understand why, but sometimes don't quite know.the right words to say.

DELETE

Nola009 · May 13, 2014

Since you have personal experience about the rude treatment of someone over health and weight problems why are you so quick to judge in your many posts and likes? Usually a person who has experienced or witnessed this type of tragedy has some compassion toward others. Yet you do not come across as a compassionate person, yet alone nurse. I would much rather have a compassionate nurse than a "healthy" role model for a nurse!

Care to give any specific examples?

brandy1017, ASN, RN · May 13, 2014

Care to give any specific examples?

I'm sorry I'm taking it personally when it is not. I know only too well from personal experience that health and weight and looks can be fleeting and whether a surgery or an illness or a medication can adversely affect one's life as your brother has experienced. Prednisone is a life saver, but it has awful side effects. I'm sorry for my last post, please disregard.

Ally082 · May 13, 2014

And where I come from, people use message boards like this....that by the name indicates it's for nurses.....to vent, laugh, relax, blow off steam, and NOT have to be on the spot as though we're at work.
People here are "compassionate advocates for the suffering in their communities". They don't "find a way to make fun of them every chance they get". And they also don't need to be lectured to about how to unwind ON THEIR OWN TIME. Especially not from a pre-nursing student who feels it is HER job to set everyone else's boundaries, parameters for what SHE feels is allowable for us to say.
Don't worry about the general public who "stumble in" here. They are guests, and can choose to stay and be happy or stumble on out. The general public will get all their money's worth from me when I'm on the clock, thank you.

Another one who condones making fun of overweight nurses, patients and student bashing. :yawn:

Have you not seen the many posts before this filled with upset comments by those who think it's malicious to make fun of fat people? How can anyone write facetious comments about people's weight especially after reading comments like Esme12's? It's difficult to learn how intolerant and cruel some people can be, IMO some people take it way too far, even for a forum such as this. You wont say anything to the poster earlier who called people out for making fun of their patients, you never speak up when threads get heated and people put each other on the spot (I see it all the time) but you choose to put ME on the spot and in a very personal way....why?...because you have a history of picking on students.

The hypocrisy of your inflammatory and presumptuous comments about how I "feel" or what YOU think my intentions are don't surprise me actually. It's been made known in many other threads that certain people want students to know their place here. You don't think everyone notices how negative the comments are toward students? It's been clearly stated, more than once just in thread alone, that I'm not entitled to my opinion because I'm a pre-nursing student. MANY other posters and students have complained about the aggressive, unpleasant and negative tones of some of the posters in this thread and in others. Do you EVER have anything positive to say...ever?

The only people trying to put parameters and boundaries in place are people who discriminate against others based on how they look and their education status etc. By the way I don't think a post about "one's look" requires a nursing degree to comment. You said it yourself, " You can take the word "nurse" out and substitute ANY profession. I never jump into topics that are above my level of training and I always make it clear that I'm a student with experience in other healthcare industries but not a nurse. Interviews are a pretty general topic if you ask me, but what do I know I'm just a pre-nursing student who worked for several years in a busy, difficult and demanding psychiatric hospital in a major city, while holding a second part time job, taking care of a sick parent and a household all at once. I know what hard work is and I know what sick patients can be like. It's apparent you don't worry about what others think or feel for that matter but I do care about people's feelings and I think some of stuff said here today was despicable, rude, ignorant and hurtful. I'm not an egotistical person, I don't get my kicks from making other people feel bad about themselves and I promise you when I am a nurse I wont be ganging up on students.

I hate when things get off topic like this so I wont comment anymore in this thread, maybe it's time for students to start a new topic about all the discrimination they have to endure.

Nola009 · May 13, 2014

I'm sorry I'm taking it personally when it is not. I know only too well from personal experience that health and weight and looks can be fleeting and whether a surgery or an illness or a medication can adversely affect one's life as your brother has experienced. Prednisone is a life saver, but it has awful side effects. I'm sorry for my last post, please disregard.

You're right --- it's not personal. I am very objective and people can sometimes take me the wrong way. I freely criticize myself, but yeah it does hurt when all you want is someone to UNDERSTAND what you feel and it's like nobody hears what you are trying to say...

And yeah, prednisone can have some terrible side effects. It can cause depression, anger, and impulsivity...

I love my brother, but he hasn't spoken to me in over four years due to some weird issue between him and my husband. I come from a very dysfunctional.family and no one will listen or help.

imintrouble, BSN, RN · May 13, 2014

Fat is the last acceptable prejudice. I saw that on the news a while ago.

I look forward to the day when that's no longer true.

I work with a nurse who is very thin and pretty. She's openly disgusted by her obese patients. She's too self centered to notice that the way she looks at her patients, is the way I look at her.

crossfitnurse · May 13, 2014

I think a lot of these responses are simply justifications for insecurities ? just my take.

Seems like quite the hot button.