'Unhealthy' nurses...bad examples?

[fifi2323]

I hope this post doesn't offend anyone,but I have noticed a lot of the nurses I know are overweight,smokers or both. Obviously people become nurses because they completed school,and are qualified to do their jobs,which has nothing to do with physical appearance or vices.

Its common knowledge that smoking and/or obesity can kill you,but I would think those in the healthcare field would have a more acute idea of how health is jeopardized by these things. I am asking one out of curiousity,and secondly because I myself am overweight. I was just wondering if anybody has ever gotten any flak from patients or higher-ups? Or do you feel you aren't taken as seriously because of how you look,or because you need a cigarette break? I hope this hasn't happened,since its discriminatory and wrong,but we all know that doesn't mean much!

[scribblerpnp]

Just to stay on track... the origional post wasn't asking if we think better nurses are healthier nurses. It was asking if own vices have caused us to get flak from patients or made it more difficult to be taken seriously when we provide care, teaching.

Just seemed that the post was going to a place the origional poster didn't intend to go.

[dragonflyRN]

Relate to your patient if you can. I know the end stages also. The chronic patients also know what they are facing. Accept the patient that will not quit smoking. They do have that choice, regardless of your beliefs. As good as it is to educate, if the patient is not willing to learn, there is not much else you can do.

[Marie_LPN, RN, LPN, RN]

Someone being unhealthy cannot necessarily be seen physically. I am of normal weight, i work out, i eat right. Yet, if you're my pt., you can't "see" that i have high cholesterol. So, guess i'm a bad example, IF i were supposed to be a role model.

We have a pulmologist that smokes. Would someone like to go up to him and tell him he's a bad example lol?

[proverbs2511]

If you smell of cigarette smoke, you cannot teach a patient the value of quitting. I quit smoking 7 years ago and it is much easier to tell patients not to smoke. I am overweight, as most people are these days, and I know that it affects my ability to teach others the healthy benefits of a nutritious diet and exercise. I know that all of us know this, we just find it easier to say we don't care. I would rather have a president and a doctor and a nurse with high moral values, if it were possible. All my opinions and, I must say, now that I am 55, they are a lot different than when I was 25!

[Josh L.Ac.]

Cudos, to those in Madrid than banned the runway models for excessive skinniness (as determined by an endocrinologist and BMI determinations) from their fashion week. That example is as bad as any other.

So it is okay to discriminate against a group for setting a bad example because they have a low BMI, but not fair to do it to a group that has a high one?

[Marie_LPN, RN, LPN, RN]

So it is okay to discriminate against a group for setting a bad example because they have a low BMI, but not fair to do it to a group that has a high one?

Excellent point.

[nwrn]

I am new to nursing and I too have noticed that many of my coworkers are considered "overweight" by conventional standards and have given this some thought. It seems that most nurses on my unit are on their feet moving 90% of the day. They are certainly burning more kcal than they have time to consume during our 12hr shifts. I am beginning to think about stress levels and cortisol release being a primary culprit in this overweight phenomena. Could this be a contributing factor?

[VivaLasViejas, ASN, RN]

We're straying a little far off-topic here, so please allow me to redirect it with a couple of thoughts:

1) Nurses are human, with the same sorts of hang-ups and quirks as everyone else. In a way, I think this actually adds to our credibility with patients, as we can share what we've learned from our own struggles with bad habits. I've found that most people do listen to those who have "been there, done that".

2) Cultural standards of physical beauty really have no place in a discussion about nursing competence (or lack thereof). Who CARES what a nurse looks like, as long as he or she can do the job? JMHO.

[Tweety, BSN, RN]

I am new to nursing and I too have noticed that many of my coworkers are considered "overweight" by conventional standards and have given this some thought. It seems that most nurses on my unit are on their feet moving 90% of the day. They are certainly burning more kcal than they have time to consume during our 12hr shifts. I am beginning to think about stress levels and cortisol release being a primary culprit in this overweight phenomena. Could this be a contributing factor?

Probably that's true that stress is a contributing factor.

However we are not moving at an aerobic base that seriously burns a lot of calories.

More than the sedentary person for sure, but I don't think we're burning off what we eat, especially considering most of us eat the standard American Diet.

[Marie_LPN, RN, LPN, RN]

Cultural standards of physical beauty really have no place in a discussion about nursing competence (or lack thereof).

Actually it does, if a pt. has the viewpoint that what someone sees is the kind of care they are getting (and i'm certainly not saying i agree with that, so no point in flaming me. But we all know there are people that think that way, who forget that nurses are human).

[Tweety, BSN, RN]

Actually it does, if a pt. has the viewpoint that what someone sees is the kind of care they are getting (and i'm certainly not saying i agree with that, so no point in flaming me. But we all know there are people that think that way, who forget that nurses are human).

What you both say is true. In an ideal world we as nurses will be judged on our compassion, knowledge and skills.

But we know what you say is true too. we don't live in an ideal world. Many people judge by what they see on the outside, so we have to deal with that.

[MQ Edna]

I was just wondering if anybody has ever gotten any flak from patients or higher-ups? Or do you feel you aren't taken as seriously because of how you look,or because you need a cigarette break?

I work in an ICU with one nurse who is morbidly obese, a smoker and who has a very difficult time moving around. This particular nurse is sharp and intelligent, she has been an ICU nurse for over 15 years, she was one of my favorite preceptors during my orientation. But . . over the past year I have had at least 3 families/patients question me regarding her competency.

Basically I have been asked if she is an "RN", if she is "a regular on our floor", if she is "a nurses aid", if she is "well enough to be a nurse". It's really uncomfortable to field these questions and I have assured all parties that she is indeed an RN and has over 15 years of experience in our ICU and is a very competent nurse.

I hate to say it, but nursing is like everything else, many will judge a book by it's cover (at least at first). Obesity and smoking are not the only things that turn patients/families off though.

I also work with a wonderful/intelligent nurse who is highly opinionated and tends to have a "lecturing" and condescending type mannerism. She is normal weight and doesn't smoke. Yet, there have been at least 2 instances (since I have been in this ICU) in which families of patients have requested to the NM that she not take care of their loved one.