How important is your 'look' as a nurse

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Especially when it comes to getting hired, pay raises and such things. I mean, I'm sure hospital administration can't possibly expect us all to look like super models, but isn't there some sort of 'look' hiring managers tend to gravitate toward?

Specializes in Home Health.

I've seen nurses with funky hair colors, neon nail polish, tattoos, piercings...all sorts of "unprofessional distractions." Personally, I like 'em and don't regard them as less professional or whatever other prejudice might be associated with self-expression. Perhaps nursing needs to enforce militaristic policies for our appearance if it's going to cause such a ruckus. I know we're professionals, but do we really need to be so hard on ourselves and each other? From what I've seen the patients do not care. They're sick and they're trusting you to help them get better.

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Specializes in SCI and Traumatic Brain Injury.

One thing that this discussion clearly shows is that Americans are OBSESSED with weight. In speaking of unattractiveness, we could mention other charcteristics, but they would not generate pages and pages of comment as this subject has. I personally know people who seem to notice nothing else about people...only their degree of "fatness". This very fixation seems UNHEALTHY to me. In some cultures a "fat" person, male or female, is admired.

Americans strongly associate weight, or lack therof, with well-being. "Fat" is seen to be a character fault. Nurses, of all people, should know that countless drugs can cause weight gain, steroids and anti depressants come to mind. And of course, much of body type is inherited. Yet, too often, medical professionals approach an obese patient as if the patient had no knowledge of their problem. Believe me, any person who is fat, already knows they are fat! (A they may be getting frequent reminders of that from family or even strangers who feel some duty to comment on it). Even some politicians seem to think that they have some special knowledge about healthy eating that must be taught (and possibly legislated) to the ignorant populace. It isn't as if people don't get information (some reliable some not) from magazines, T.V. programs and commercials. So I don't think most need another lecture about diet from a nurse, or another recitation of the scary things that can happen to obese people. To discover the percieved needs of the patient is a basic strategy in a lot of nursing.

I do think a nurse could spend some time exploring, with an obese patient, their history and specific problems they may have losing weight Does a certain time of day or a certain type of situation make them want to eat. What cravings do they have. Is there something that could be substituted. In fact, some patients can be so discouraged, they don't even want to try anymore. A positive, encouraging attitude may help as much as anything.

A bias against "obesity" will never help.

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I can only imagine that the main posters who have an issue in this post are overweight or are otherwise deemed unattractive.

Really? I can only imagine that this post came from someone who is ignorant, or otherwise deemed unintelligent.

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1. Saying that obesity is not a behavior is true, but it seems a bit like an oversimplification. Certainly, there are exceptions, but I think generally speaking, the type of obesity we see as an epidemic in the states IS fueled by a set of behaviors. Not always, but certainly frequently. Can we agree on that?

Nope. Not really. Obesity is not a behavior. Can we name behavioral factors that influence a person's body size? Sure. But body size in and of itself is not. It may sound like I'm splitting hairs, but the implications of the definition are what I'm getting at. BECAUSE obesity is not a behavior,

-there is no clear behavioral intervention to "cure it"

-there is no way to hide it

-you cannot ascribe a behavior or pattern of behaviors to every fat person, any more than you can do so to any other group of people with a similar characteristic (thin people, tall people, caucasions, etc).

Every smoker smokes. Right? But there is nothing that every fat person does, or does not do. Period.

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2. I'm not saying I think that only healthy and fit nurses should be nurses - I don't necessarily feel that way. However, there is some precedent for that that I've seen in the EMS world - some ems jurisdictions require their providers to pass timed physicals. Not that being able to run a mile in under ten minutes means you're health or skinny, but you can't possibly believe that there isn't a correlation.

Also, I'm really not saying nurses should be held to standards of health or body fat, but since it IS socially acceptable (not saying it's ok) to tell smokers they should quit, that I don't understand why it isn't also ok to tell obese persons they should lose weight. I get that it's not that simple, but I think it's a similar idea. I'm certainly not in a position to be saying who would enforce (or how) an employment policy on body fat. I'm not saying that there should be a policy on it.

Is that more clear?

Yes it's clear: It's clearly wrong.

The difference is: 100% of the time, quitting smoking cures smoking. There is no 100% successful behavior intervention for obesity, since body size is not a behavior. I am not saying it is easy to quit smoking, nor am I advocating for telling smokers what to do. But it is different.

Generally accepted behavioral intervention for fat people is to lose weight. Since losing weight is not a behavior, we'll go with "eat less, exercise more." Duh. Well, long term studies have shown that this tried and true, everybody knows method FAILS 95% of the time long term. Frequently, fat people end up fatter after attempting intentional weight loss. So should we require people to do something that is statistaclly shown to fail 95% of the time, and about 2/3 of the time, causes the reverse of what we want?

If there is an aspect of the job that requires a certain level of fitness, then by all means, test applicants to ensure they have that fitness level. If body size/weight is a true safety (such as flight nurses), then by all means, have those restrictions. I am not saying that if you gave a fitness test to a bunch of fatties and gave the same test to thin people, that the fatties would fare as well, or not. Who cares? The issue is, whether fat people should be discriminated against because they are fat.

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The problem with this topic is that each of us probably has a different idea about what being overweight is.

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If you are naturally above avg sexy you should cover up and wear loose fitting attire during the interview process.

Then afterwards you should wear the tightest scrubs possible without risk of ripping.

Your chest area should look like your boobs are fighting to escape & breathe for oxygen. Also wear hair long & bouncy with high heel, skinny pointy stilettos....The higher the heel, the higher the raise you should expect to receive. Each inch represents an annual percentage increase.

The Reddest lipstick or any neon variation (pink, yellow highlighter) with the heaviest make up foundation and darkest, thickest eyeliner should do. As a general guideline, you want less than raccoon eyes (for the eyeliner) but enough make up that one of your coworkers that match your skin tone could take a powder brush to your face and beat theres with it and you'd still look untouched.

The hair should reach your gluteal fold minimally.

PM me if you'd like anymore details or possible links to tutorials....

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Specializes in Home Health.
If you are naturally above avg sexy you should cover up and wear loose fitting attire during the interview process.

Then afterwards you should wear the tightest scrubs possible without risk of ripping.

Your chest area should look like your boobs are fighting to escape & breathe for oxygen. Also wear hair long & bouncy with high heel, skinny pointy stilettos....The higher the heel, the higher the raise you should expect to receive. Each inch represents an annual percentage increase.

The Reddest lipstick or any neon variation (pink, yellow highlighter) with the heaviest make up foundation and darkest, thickest eyeliner should do. As a general guideline, you want less than raccoon eyes (for the eyeliner) but enough make up that one of your coworkers that match your skin tone could take a powder brush to your face and beat theres with it and you'd still look untouched.

The hair should reach your gluteal fold minimally.

PM me if you'd like anymore details or possible links to tutorials....

Thanks, I needed that laugh. :D

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If you are naturally above avg sexy you should cover up and wear loose fitting attire during the interview process.

Then afterwards you should wear the tightest scrubs possible without risk of ripping.

Your chest area should look like your boobs are fighting to escape & breathe for oxygen. Also wear hair long & bouncy with high heel, skinny pointy stilettos....The higher the heel, the higher the raise you should expect to receive. Each inch represents an annual percentage increase.

The Reddest lipstick or any neon variation (pink, yellow highlighter) with the heaviest make up foundation and darkest, thickest eyeliner should do. As a general guideline, you want less than raccoon eyes (for the eyeliner) but enough make up that one of your coworkers that match your skin tone could take a powder brush to your face and beat theres with it and you'd still look untouched.

The hair should reach your gluteal fold minimally.

PM me if you'd like anymore details or possible links to tutorials....

Ohh yeah baby.... this sounds like stellar advice! Can't wait to do my 12-hr shifts in heels!!!:roflmao:

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Specializes in Med-Surg.
Sorry I didn't know that!! Thanks for telling me in a nice way and not judging and criticizing me for being ignorant.
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Attitude seems to be winning out over appearances more and more. That's a shift I can get behind. ;)

I am not sure about that either.

How do determine someone's attitude by looking at them?

some of us have naturally looking sad faces,but some people think they can determine how i feel just by looking at my natural face.

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If you are naturally above avg sexy you should cover up and wear loose fitting attire during the interview process.

Then afterwards you should wear the tightest scrubs possible without risk of ripping.

Your chest area should look like your boobs are fighting to escape & breathe for oxygen. Also wear hair long & bouncy with high heel, skinny pointy stilettos....The higher the heel, the higher the raise you should expect to receive. Each inch represents an annual percentage increase.

The Reddest lipstick or any neon variation (pink, yellow highlighter) with the heaviest make up foundation and darkest, thickest eyeliner should do. As a general guideline, you want less than raccoon eyes (for the eyeliner) but enough make up that one of your coworkers that match your skin tone could take a powder brush to your face and beat theres with it and you'd still look untouched.

The hair should reach your gluteal fold minimally.

PM me if you'd like anymore details or possible links to tutorials....

Didn't work for me.

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