'Unhealthy' nurses...bad examples?

vermonthiker · Sep 19, 2006

We just had this discussion in school. I was never a smoker and remember as an aid when other aids would often go outside for smoking breaks. Sometimes the nurses would go too leaving me (at age 16) alone with an entire floor of pts!! :nono:

I've been thin, overweight, and normal weight. I've seen first hand how I'm treated much better in general by the public the smaller I am. :madface:

I don't agree with discrimination of overweight/obese people or smokers. With that said, I do think it's hypocritical to tell a pt one thing and do the opposite.

Over two years ago I created a diet and exercise plan that I knew would work for me. I lost 80lbs and kept it off. My friend who is a nurse and very obese critized my plan to no end. I didn't listen to her because it didn't make sense to take her advice - even knowing her credentials.

I have pock marks on my face because as a teenager I scrubbed my acne until it bled. I would never work in a dermatologist's office simply because I don't think patients would take my advice about care for the skin seriously. Even if I knew what I was talking about, why would they listen?

nuangel1, BSN, RN · Sep 19, 2006

:yeahthat:

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.

vermonthiker · Sep 19, 2006

I always laugh though, at when we have inservices or meetings or anything like that in a hospital, they always serve us Pop, Cookies, Chips, Donuts.......

Such a great point! Hospital food is awful enough for pts, the food offered to employees is worse! I know my local hospital has different junk food every Friday - make your own sundaes etc.

NancyNurse27 · Sep 19, 2006

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!

First of all, I think the original post got lost in the mix here. She was asking people who are OVERWEIGHT AND/OR SMOKERS who also happen to be nurses if they had gotten any flak, not opinions on whether or not overweight smoking nurses were competent.

SO, as an overweight nurse who occasionally smokes, the answer is No, i've not gotten any flak about my weight or my smoking. However, overweight people are often made fun of or cornered and told "You're so pretty, if you could just lose some weight, you would look so much better." So of course you are going to deal with that as a nurse sometimes too because nurses are human, doctors are human, management is human and our patients are human. And we all have vices and no one is perfect. Also, how many patients have you educated about the danger of smoking and being overweight and have gone home and kept on smoking and not lost any weight? Our jobs as nurses is to educate patients, yet the ultimate decision weighs with the patient. If my patients don't take me as a credible source of information that's their choice.

So as a nurse I know my dangers of smoking and being obese. I unfortunately have decided that right now I am not going to quit smoking and haven't gotten serious about losing weight. I hope this helps. But it's your decision... :nurse:

Cyndee, MSN, NP · Sep 19, 2006

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?

There are a heck of a lot more people dying from being overweight than underweight.

jrbl77, RN · Sep 19, 2006

i haven't read all the replies on this subject, but i for one am an overweight nurse and i feel that my job hasn't helped this at all. eating on the run if at all and exhausted when i go home from work. some days hardly time to go to the bathroom. i have just joined the y and have been excersing- i do feel better. am starting a new job next week, see how things go with that.hope to keep up the excersie routine.:monkeydance:

CHATSDALE · Sep 19, 2006

some people are overweight . i am undertall

madwife2002, BSN, RN · Sep 20, 2006

My mother was a overweight uncompliant diabetic and she died of uterine cancer, At 75 nothing to do with either of her other complaints

Tweety, BSN, RN · Sep 20, 2006

My mother was a overweight uncompliant diabetic and she died of uterine cancer, At 75 nothing to do with either of her other complaints

Was she healthy? With a good quality of life full of vigorous activity?

My gramps smoked until he was died from a stroke in his 80s, never had a problem breathing at all.

Elisheva · Sep 20, 2006

Are we talking about health or the appearance of health? Is the appearance of health the important thing we impart to our patients?

It's a slippery slope. Sure, it would be great to be the model of good health, but the truth is that we live in a materialistic, superficial society and the "appearance" of health seems to be what matters.

You can be slim and attractive and be: bulemic, a drug abuser, or suffer from a psychiatric disorder than can be disabling.

Or, you can be like my dad, who was a smoker for 40 years, eats the world's worst diet, has hypertension and a stroke history starting in 1973, and who has had chronic myologenous leukemia for the past 5 years. He's 86 years old and can outrun me. He works in his garden, loves to go to Wal-mart, and has a girlfriend.

We owe our patients the truth. Yes, a healthy lifestyle is the ultimate goal, but very few live that way. We need to teach patients to aim for the best without the self-hatred and loathing that our society tries to impose on the less than perfect, to accept themselves when they fall short, and to keep trying. Just like most of us, nurses and otherwise, have to do.

I think you enable a dysfunctional view of health when you settle for appearance only.

supernurse65 · Sep 20, 2006

I'm sorry to have caused controversy..I was just curious since I will be going in to nursing and I am overweight,and I was wondering what peoples experiences were.I tend to be a worrier,and was concerned how it would be for me. Of course it is not right to discriminate,and being heavy or a smoker doesn't make a bad nurse or bad person. How you care for someone is most important. Everyone is human and are allowed their vices.I also think we are all here for the same reason and we shouldn't attack one another..just my two cents. Anyway, my post was meant an innocent question and I'm sorry if it was taken as anything else.

fifi I feel it depends on how you feel about YOU. If you think you are a bad example and voice this maybe others will feel the same. Just go to nursing school CONFIDENT and pursue the career that you want to pursue and be the BEST DARNED NURSE YOU CAN BE. :twocents:

ckben · Sep 20, 2006

I agree that your weight or appearance - no matter if it's thin, thick, or whatever, has nothing to do with how competent you are as a nurse. However...

How can I make any headway with teaching on how bad smoking is for you and all the different ways it affects your entire body (not just your lungs) to a patient when all they have to do is take a trip downstairs to see, at any given time, plenty of nurses and RTs puffing away? Why do I, a non-smoker, feel like a hypocrite handing out the required "why it's important to stop smoking" info sheets since everyone can see that other staff members do the same thing as they do?

I can't believe some people are citing family members or friends who smoke, drink, eat pure grease, yet they're 98 and active. Great for them! But not everybody will be so lucky. Fact is, smoking and obesity WILL detrimentally contribute to your health, even if it isn't readily apparent. And how much worse for patients who already have, for example, cardiovascular disease! But if you try to teach them, they blow you off and ask other staff for cigs on the way down. It's so frustrating!

Not to mention the fact that we aren't allowed to go downstairs for a break, or to eat lunch, but smokers can go down 4-5 times a night for smoke breaks, leaving the rest of us to look after their patients. How is that fair?

Finally, the overweight issue. The only reason I have a problem with overweight nurses is because it's so endemic to our society, and getting worse. How do you try to enforce to someone how their weight may be contributing to their health problems, when all they have to do is walk down the hall to see nurses, many overweight, eating doughnuts and pizza and brownies and cake in the break room?

Again, it's the same thing. I believe that, as nurses, we should be setting the examples for our patients. Education is key, and how can you

dare to try to educate your patient if you don't follow your own advice? Yeah, nobody is perfect. But most people become nurses, at least in part, because they want to help people. But how well do you think your patients listen to you if they can obviously see that you don't believe in what you're teaching?

Sorry if I offended anyone. It wasn't my intention, but I get so frustrated when nurses themselves encourage habits and lifestyles that we KNOW are harmful.