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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

To expect fat nurses to have some insight?.

755 replies

Vikingess · 07/05/2024 21:26

Just had a routine health check today at my GP surgery. Two nurses - both considerably overweight - dispensing advice on diet. I
am not overweight -AIBU to expect health professionals to demonstrate the the standards they recommended or at least admit to falling short.

OP posts:
Thread gallery
7
Walkaround · 08/05/2024 08:02

They can’t win, really - if slim, they would no doubt be accused of not understanding how difficult it is for others to control their weight; and if fat, they are fat f*ckers themselves who have no right to comment.

Either the advice they give is correct or it isn’t. Any other reaction you have to it is your own gross over-sensitivity.

ShamedBySiri · 08/05/2024 08:01

Beautiful3 · 08/05/2024 07:19

Yes I agree with you. Weeks after having my baby I had to meet the nurse, because I was a new patient. I brought my new born with me. An extremely overweight nurse told me that I needed to lose weight! 1.5 stone! I laughed and said, I just had a baby. Apparently that was just an excuse! I looked at her in disbelief. It felt wrong for someone even fatter to tell me to lose weight!

Apart from anything else that was massively tactless. If you had PND losing your previous body and bearing the scars (literal and metaphorical) of childbearing can contribute to that and comments about your weight could really tip you over.

ShamedBySiri · 08/05/2024 07:55

*doctors are out having their jollies and doing their yacht club dinners.

As a fulltime nhs doctor, I am clearly missing out! Where is my nearest yacht?!*

😂😂😂

Fanchester · 08/05/2024 07:53

Very few nurses could study medicine and that is the barometer

Nurses study nursing. It’s a completely separate profession.

zendeveloper · 08/05/2024 07:52

zeibesaffron · 08/05/2024 07:49

@zendeveloper why wouldn’t Drs seek advice from a nurse?

About their own health? Because they know much more than any nurse possibly could, by the virtue of being the owner of the body AND having much superior medical education.
I just assume it was extreme virtue signalling that went too far on that post.

KvotheTheBloodless · 08/05/2024 07:51

I'd have thought healthcare workers would be more likely to be overweight because:

  1. Shift work is awful for your health, and lack of sleep makes you hungry;
  2. It's a horribly stressful job, and often there aren't any proper breaks so no chance to get something healthy to eat - lots of vending machine snacks and fast food;
  3. It can be a very upsetting job, leading to comfort eating.

Nobody actively wants to be fat, but the fact is most people are, and the reasons are more complex than a lack of self control.

crockofshite · 08/05/2024 07:49

Perhaps the fat nurses were giving you good dietary advice so you don't end up fat like them.

zeibesaffron · 08/05/2024 07:49

@zendeveloper why wouldn’t Drs seek advice from a nurse?

LemonPeonies · 08/05/2024 07:48

AlcoholSwab · 08/05/2024 06:46

I've worked with enough nurses to know that most of them are of average intellect.

Very few nurses could study medicine and that is the barometer.

Edited

Absolute bollocks. I'm a ward sister and the doctors ask me questions just as much as the other way round. We have different types of knowledge, but luckily none of the doctors I work with have a condescending attitude like yours. I suppose you have a massively high IQ? 😒

HappyReunion · 08/05/2024 07:47

Wornoutlady · 08/05/2024 03:02

I can't believe anyone is complaining about nurses. They literally hold up the health service and keep patients alive while doctors are out having their jollies and doing their yacht club dinners.

Shame on you op

They're fat because a) they're under paid b) they're overworked and c) they have no time for themselves after taking care of you and then their own families.

doctors are out having their jollies and doing their yacht club dinners.

As a fulltime nhs doctor, I am clearly missing out! Where is my nearest yacht?!

rwalker · 08/05/2024 07:47

there a fitness instructor at my gym she is in fantastic shape I would train with her as think she clearly knows her shit ,lead by example and practice what she preaches

diet advice from someone over weight I’d be thinking do they know what’s there on about

zendeveloper · 08/05/2024 07:44

HappyReunion · 08/05/2024 07:42

I am a thin doctor, but goodness I am unhealthy. I eat way too much sugar and processed food and do not do exercise. Despite my knowledge, I am not a healthy person. However, because to the outside world I am thin, no one judges me.

I recently had a over 50 health check with a nurse. She asked me the screening questions and I said that I really needed to do more exercise and eat more healthily. Her exact words were,’no don’t worry. You will be absolutely fine, look at you. The last time I weighed what you do was on my wedding day!’

I find this kind of response far far more irresponsible than the nurse in the OP. I could be thin for a variety of reasons, physical or mental. in her eyes she had swallowed society’s view that thin is desirable so dismissed my concerns.

Obviously I am informed and educated enough to address these issues myself but I would quite like to discuss this with a health professional as a ‘patient’ outside of my ‘doctor’ professional role.

Give me the nurse in the OP any day. She was the one doing her job properly.

You are a doctor seeking health advice from a nurse?

zeibesaffron · 08/05/2024 07:43

I am currently a ‘fat’ nurse - didn’t know it was thyroid related until 2 months ago, I am now on medication and weight is starting to reduce/ stabilise. My wonderful friend is a practice nurse she lost her husband to cancer 6 months ago and has struggled to eat well since - she is probably a size 6. We all have lives, things happen to us that can affect us in different ways - so if you can just try and be less judgmental that would be great!

And no I am not going to admit my ‘failings’ or the ‘fallings’ of my friend to you in a consultation.

CantDealwithChristmas · 08/05/2024 07:42

Nah, it's possible to do your job properly whilst also not being great at doing the thing you do for work in your personal life. I know two doctors, one smokes, the other drinks loads and does coke. I know a psychotherapist with depression. I used to know a mortgage adviser who couldn't get on the property ladder herself.

Also worth remembering that nurses who work shifts are predisposed to gain weight cos shift working screws up your circadian rhythms and your metabolism.

HappyReunion · 08/05/2024 07:42

I am a thin doctor, but goodness I am unhealthy. I eat way too much sugar and processed food and do not do exercise. Despite my knowledge, I am not a healthy person. However, because to the outside world I am thin, no one judges me.

I recently had a over 50 health check with a nurse. She asked me the screening questions and I said that I really needed to do more exercise and eat more healthily. Her exact words were,’no don’t worry. You will be absolutely fine, look at you. The last time I weighed what you do was on my wedding day!’

I find this kind of response far far more irresponsible than the nurse in the OP. I could be thin for a variety of reasons, physical or mental. in her eyes she had swallowed society’s view that thin is desirable so dismissed my concerns.

Obviously I am informed and educated enough to address these issues myself but I would quite like to discuss this with a health professional as a ‘patient’ outside of my ‘doctor’ professional role.

Give me the nurse in the OP any day. She was the one doing her job properly.

Oblomov24 · 08/05/2024 07:39

That's unfair op. But, The dietary advice from nhs is poor. Or rather weight is such a complex issue it requires more investigation. The uk has an obesity crisis so the basic simplistic advice is clearly not working.

insidenumber9 · 08/05/2024 07:37

Yanbu op. Right or wrong I would find this very annoying and wonder why they didn’t take their own advice!

Coatsoff42 · 08/05/2024 07:36

I imagine your two ‘fat nurses’ have lots of ‘insight’ into eating a healthy diet and the repercussions of eating a bad diet. They must see diabetics, alcoholics, heart failure patients, malnourished frail old people all day long.

I assume you want a health professional to be well trained, compassionate, hard working, diligent and a good listener.
Im not sure why you only want general diet advice from thin people. You know you can eat a really healthy, whole food, plant rich diet, have great health and life chances and still be a bit fat? And you can be thin with shocking heart health, kidney problems, skin problems, liver function problems.

Perhaps people less perfect than you prefer to discuss their problems managing weight with someone who has ‘insight’ into that, rather than a perfect and thin nurse who has no ‘insight’ into the everyday failings of ordinary people.

Easipeelerie · 08/05/2024 07:36

In my experience, recently been in many hospitals regularly, doctors are generally thin and nurses fat - not all obviously, but many noticeably in the obese range.

westernlights · 08/05/2024 07:29

Londonrach1 · 08/05/2024 07:16

Yabu and rude. Also as a NHS worker I can tell you it's impossible to eat properly when on shift and you grab what you can which sadly is biscuits. doesn't mean their medical advice isn't important. Giving this advice is part of their job.

She's not being rude, just stating how she feels.
I'm sure there are other options than biscuits...

Anyotherdude · 08/05/2024 07:29

NHS staff are often judgmental and self-important, while being less than self-aware IME.
On my one and only visit to A&E I was made to feel guilty about having had an unavoidable accident, despite having never before bothered a hospital in 40+ years of paying into the health service, and being surrounded by others that clearly hadn’t, but were being treated better than me.

Beautiful3 · 08/05/2024 07:19

Yes I agree with you. Weeks after having my baby I had to meet the nurse, because I was a new patient. I brought my new born with me. An extremely overweight nurse told me that I needed to lose weight! 1.5 stone! I laughed and said, I just had a baby. Apparently that was just an excuse! I looked at her in disbelief. It felt wrong for someone even fatter to tell me to lose weight!

Londonrach1 · 08/05/2024 07:16

Yabu and rude. Also as a NHS worker I can tell you it's impossible to eat properly when on shift and you grab what you can which sadly is biscuits. doesn't mean their medical advice isn't important. Giving this advice is part of their job.

GinForBreakfast · 08/05/2024 07:15

BurnoutGP · 08/05/2024 07:04

I'm finding this thread more staggering by the minute.
By extrapolation....ive never had cancer so I am unable to treat or advice someone with cancer, depression likewise, heart failure, asthma pretty much the majority of diseases.
Are you seriously saying that a HCP can only manage something they have direct experience of.
While the world thinks Google makes them an expert?

🙄 not all jobs are the same. If you don’t know the difference between treating cancer and community work then I really can’t help you. What a ridiculous analogy.

Ohnodontwantthiscrush · 08/05/2024 07:13

No.

My sister is an excellent relationship counsellor despite her own checkered romantic history.