Why are nurses obese?
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haha, nope! but nurses take care of each other while they take care of everyone else.
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I think its because of long hours, different shifts, night, backshift, my ex's mother was a nurse and literally scarfed her food , even at home, just because they rarely get time to eat. also they are so busy taking care of other people, that is their job and passion, and probably neglect to take care of themselves...god love nurses!!!! However my ex's mother was slim , and his sister is a nurse and shes slim....dunno ??
I'm sure the hours and the shifts and all have a great deal to do with it. I worked 3 to 11 at an Emergency Veterinary Hospital & that was when I started to put on weight. I think the stress of it all coupled with my family hx of Diabetes was a bad combination for me. That as well as the fact that I had gestational Diabetes.
When the system is predisposed to breaking down, adding stressors only speed up the train. :ohwell:
I know for me, 10 long years as a Veterinary nurse at the emerg hosp, the job took it's toll on me.
My MIL was a charge nurse for a million years here in NY, she was never overweight, though she also had problems with blood sugar dysregulation.0 -
My husband works the day shift as an orthopedic nurse, with 12+ hours per shift. He is actually slim.
His main rule: He will not eat when he gets home (about 8:30-9pm)
The reason is because he consistently has less energy overall.
I always pack his lunch, and have for 7 years.
It is always: yogurt and fruit and graham crackers for morning break, sandwich/chips/kombucha and treat for lunch, almonds/treat for afternoon/evening snack.
He has breakfast before he leaves in the morning, it is always: yogurt and granola.
He tries to stay active, running/biking/lifting as he can.
For women, i think it can be harder...they are always faced with preparing meals and dealing with food generally. And care giving even when home.
*That is how he eats on a work day.0 -
I'm a psychiatric social worker, and a lot of my coworkers and other people in my profession tend to be overweight. I feel like it's the same kind of deal - long hours, stressful work full of mental and emotional strain (we just had a guy get recommitted today and that was a rough one) and your breaks are always liable to be interrupted by some crisis or another so you tend to eat grab-and-go meals. You're on your feet all the time, and that makes it hard to want to exercise on top of work. These aren't excuses (that's why I'm on MFP, after all), but they are all contributing factors.
ETA: IMO, it doesn't have anything to do with being knowledgeable about healthy eating and exercise. We work all the time to encourage our clients to be healthier when we ourselves aren't always the healthiest. Having the knowledge doesn't always translate to putting it into practice.
This is exactly how it was for us too at the Animal Hospital. We all smoked, even the doctors, we all drank too much too. It was definitely the stress of the job. It's a calling for sure. My mom became a nurse at the age of 62. I tried the best I could to talk her out of it but it was something she had always wanted to do.
While I realize Emergency Veterinary care is different, it's surprisingly similar. I only lasted about 12 years total before burning out.0 -
Stress of the job
Constantly changing hours
Tight schedule, end up grabbing fast food instead of cooking real meals, no gym time.0 -
who cares..? there's overweight/obese people in every profession
:laugh: and yess, well, there is that, isn't there? :blushing:0 -
55% of nurses are overweight? That's much better than the 69% of Americans in general. http://www.cdc.gov/nchs/fastats/overwt.htm
What gets me is the number of healthcare professionals who smoke. Come on... really?0 -
Always fuking myself up...I can contest to that statement being false....I've meet a lot of really hot nurses!0
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I love reading people's opinions on nurses. Remember, we choose what size needles to stick you with and what size catheters to insert.
Ha!! True!
:noway: :laugh: :blushing:0 -
I don't see how you can work in the medical field, and be obese/overweight. That has always bugged me. How are you going to tell others they need to eat less junk, when you're eating horrible things yourself? And none of that ''I work long hours'' crap. There's something called calorie control.
Because you don't go to a healthcare professional to be judged. You go to get honesty about what's good for you and your body. If my chubby nurse doesn't tell me to lose weight because she feels like a hypocrite, she's letting my appointment become about her issues and not mine, and she's not doing her job.
The reason why there are obese nurses is because knowledge =/= ability. The formula to lose weight is pretty simple, it doesn't take medical training. Actually doing it is the tough part, whether you're a nurse, truck driver, SAHM/D, or fast food employee. Some are better at it than others.
More excuses. I never said they couldn't give their honest opinion, but they should live by what they teach. If you're going to spend money on school, and energy on your job, you should live by them. I get that people don't have the time to cook a healthy dinner, but that doesn't mean you should pig out on big macs and giant fries, everyday. You can get a grilled chicken salad from the same place, without dressing.
I also don't get how they work long tired hours, yet claim they don't have much time to eat, yet are still able to pack down more than 2000 calories a day. Why don't they pack away fruit if they need a quick snack? Why do they need a snickers bar? It doesn't add up.
Your making assumptions on what you clearly know nothing about.
How am I making assumptions? Are these people getting fat by eating fruit?
Most nurses that have replies on this subject have tried to explain that already -is it an excuse ? Yes we all have excuses or we would all be perfect. They all didn't say they gorged out on Big Macs those are not in any vending machines I know about. The stress levels , the hours they work, the self all-mighty people they have to deal with, these are all factors and unless you have spent any time in their world it might be understandable that you don't understand. Judging them with out actually being there is another thing all-together.
At the end of the day if I was in the emergency room with my guts laying all around I sure would'nt care if the nurse weighed 300lbs or if they had a cigar hanging out their *kitten*. I would care about that they knew what they were doing and that they cared about what they are doing.
Well that's good for you, if you don't care, but for me I wouldn't want that.
Here's a great tip...you have the ability to CHOOSE your health care professionals. Go ahead and ask for a skinny nurse and see what kind of care you get. :grumble:
Are you insinuating that skinny nurses are bad nurses?
informal fallacy0 -
55% of nurses are overweight? That's much better than the 69% of Americans in general. http://www.cdc.gov/nchs/fastats/overwt.htm
What gets me is the number of healthcare professionals who smoke. Come on... really?
So because they're healthcare professionals, they can't be human and have faults?
What a world...
ETA: I knew plenty of doctors with feet of clay, it didn't make them lousy clinicians, just human0 -
Confirmation Bias.0
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I'm a nurse, and I'm not obese. However, I used to be, long before I was ever a nurse. The reason why some nurses are obese? The same reason most of America is obese. Although, it's even harder for nurses, because we work crazy hourse, we're sleep deprived, which I've read leads to overeating. We often have to skip lunches and breaks, because we're too busy, then by the time we get to eat, we're starving to death, and will eat whatever we can get our hands on fast enough. We have people bringing junk, treats, snacks, and fast food on the unit constantly. All to take care of other people's loved ones.
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repeat...informal fallacy0
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I'm a nurse, and I'm not obese. However, I used to be, long before I was ever a nurse. The reason why some nurses are obese? The same reason most of America is obese. Although, it's even harder for nurses, because we work crazy hourse, we're sleep deprived, which I've read leads to overeating. We often have to skip lunches and breaks, because we're too busy, then by the time we get to eat, we're starving to death, and will eat whatever we can get our hands on fast enough. We have people bringing junk, treats, snacks, and fast food on the unit constantly. All to take care of other people's loved ones.
Very true. But they have poor eating habits at home to be obese because the calories get burned during their shift. I put my Polar FT7 on during a 12.5hr busy ER shift and burned over 2500 calories. Now I burn about 75/hr just sitting so subtract 937, still burns over 1500 calories. So I eat 3000 calories on days that I work.0 -
I don't see how you can work in the medical field, and be obese/overweight. That has always bugged me. How are you going to tell others they need to eat less junk, when you're eating horrible things yourself? And none of that ''I work long hours'' crap. There's something called calorie control.
Because you don't go to a healthcare professional to be judged. You go to get honesty about what's good for you and your body. If my chubby nurse doesn't tell me to lose weight because she feels like a hypocrite, she's letting my appointment become about her issues and not mine, and she's not doing her job.
The reason why there are obese nurses is because knowledge =/= ability. The formula to lose weight is pretty simple, it doesn't take medical training. Actually doing it is the tough part, whether you're a nurse, truck driver, SAHM/D, or fast food employee. Some are better at it than others.
More excuses. I never said they couldn't give their honest opinion, but they should live by what they teach. If you're going to spend money on school, and energy on your job, you should live by them. I get that people don't have the time to cook a healthy dinner, but that doesn't mean you should pig out on big macs and giant fries, everyday. You can get a grilled chicken salad from the same place, without dressing.
I also don't get how they work long tired hours, yet claim they don't have much time to eat, yet are still able to pack down more than 2000 calories a day. Why don't they pack away fruit if they need a quick snack? Why do they need a snickers bar? It doesn't add up.
Your making assumptions on what you clearly know nothing about.
How am I making assumptions? Are these people getting fat by eating fruit?
Most nurses that have replies on this subject have tried to explain that already -is it an excuse ? Yes we all have excuses or we would all be perfect. They all didn't say they gorged out on Big Macs those are not in any vending machines I know about. The stress levels , the hours they work, the self all-mighty people they have to deal with, these are all factors and unless you have spent any time in their world it might be understandable that you don't understand. Judging them with out actually being there is another thing all-together.
At the end of the day if I was in the emergency room with my guts laying all around I sure would'nt care if the nurse weighed 300lbs or if they had a cigar hanging out their *kitten*. I would care about that they knew what they were doing and that they cared about what they are doing.
Well that's good for you, if you don't care, but for me I wouldn't want that.
Here's a great tip...you have the ability to CHOOSE your health care professionals. Go ahead and ask for a skinny nurse and see what kind of care you get. :grumble:
Are you insinuating that skinny nurses are bad nurses?
informal fallacy
Lol, how do you figure?0 -
You sure are a ray of ****ing sunshine IanBee
If only the whole world could be painted with the same brush!
I hope you never need a needle from an obese nurse with an alcohol swab0 -
Um...0
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I am a nurse who is obese. There are many reasons why a nurse is overweight/obese. Yes they know being overweight/obese is not healthy for them, just like probably all other overweight/obese people know it. I agree that medical personal have more knowledge about the problems that being overweight/obese can lead to. Nutrition is not always @ the top of the list for treating a patient. For instance right now I am doing flu shots all day long. Nutrition is not what I am focused on. When I was in school nutrition was talked about with some things, but not necessarily the focus. Many of the things I have learned about nutrition have been outside of my work/schooling. Before I had breast cancer I did some learning about nutrition & exercise. I was overweight. I started eating fairly well, balance diets. I started exercising, built up to 6-7 days a week for 2-2 1/2 hours a day. I had some back problems that got me to start exercising through a program from my MD. Because of a personal trainer I learned about nutrition. This all happened before I became a nurse. When I finally got into clinicals I was in pretty good shape & had some knowledge of nutrition. I did have to cut back a little on the exercise because of the time factor & my eating wasn't as good as I would have liked it to be while I was in clinical. Time was a big factor for this. I was in my 4th semester of clinicals when I was diagnosed with breast cancer. Some test were done before I started treatment. A hole was found in my leg and the MD's thought the cancer had metasized. I had surgery to put a rod in my leg & to biopsy the area. It wasn't cancer, just an abnormal bone growth. I was in the hospital for a week, they put a rod in my leg & cleared the margins on the cancer in my breast & took out some lymph nodes. I started chemo therapy for 6 months. I was told to eat whatever I could eat. The only thng I could tolerate after chemo was scrambled eggs & ice cream. I was no longer exercising because I was on crutches & had no strength. I was very tired & sick most of the time during these 6 months. I became very sedendary. I had jerk for an ex who was always causing problems, I had figured out my boyfriend (who I had exercised with often) at the time was schizopenic. My son was a challenge with getting him to do school work. I became very depressed during this time. I put on a lot of weight & became obese, not just overweight. I have tried over the years to lose weight & get back to exercising. I would lose weight, just to become depressed or unable to focus & gain it back. I am still tired all the time. A couple of years after my diagnoses I was working 70+ hours a week. I am now down to 40 hours a week. My depression is under control. I am in a weight loss study right now. No meds, only watching diet & exercise for me. I am hoping that once the weight comes off I will be less fatigued. I know what it felt like to exercise & eat right. During that time I felt great, no depression. I was addicted to exercise. Through this weight loss study I have found this site which I am loving. I went in for a weight check today & am down 1.8 pounds. I am happy about that. I am very aware of all the health problems that comes with being obese, and have been for years, but sometimes things are beyond one controls & sometimes you just don't care. Now that I have my depression under control I care. I am taking control of the stressers in my life which is easier when you have depression under control. Now my next hope is to get rid of the fatigue which should happen with the change in my diet, losing weight, & exercising.0
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OMG. Lots of body shaming here. Seriously. Some people need to shut their pie hole.
YES...+10
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