A Maximum BMI for nurses

Sounds like a cheap click-bait article. If it enrages people it will get views.

So don't follow it then. You know best.

How much time and money have they wasted to produce to spout this rubbish out?

I do find it patronising that I have to make an appointment with a nurse to tick the boxes on a questionnaire for my repeat pill prescription where she weighs me, while bursting out of her uniform.

I already know I need to maintain a healthy weight, drink only the advised units, not smoke and ensure my blood pressure is normal etc (for the medication and generally) and can measure and report all that that myself.

When the nurse can't even prescribe, and tries to make the 10 minute appointment I've had to make and get to 'worthwhile', it always consists of giving me advice I can tell she doesn't follow herself.

I couldn’t agree more.

And I’m sorry for your struggles. I have a couple of friends with similar issues and the ignorant superiority of people looking for an outlet for their nastiness in a world where other forms of discrimination are - quite rightly - frowned upon makes their life unbearable at times.

Came on to say this. Nurses sacrifice a lot for us.

I'm an obese AHP but no nurse so they'd be coming for us next probably!
We have enough of a shortage of nurses as it is without excluding any for daring to be overweight!

This!

YANBU. I was grimly anticipating the 'lose some weight' conversation with the surgeon as I lay waiting for my breast cancer op. In she (yes!) walked, weighing as much, if not more, than I do (yes!!). Neither of us mentioned our rolls of lard. Yes, all clear thanks.

Even the Telegraph only seems to have mentioned that as an example of a "bizarre" idea that's "blighted" the early stages of the consultation exercise. I wouldn't give it a second thought.

This.

LOL i know nurses, they are all shapes and sizes

Knowing what I do now about the complex mechanisms and endocrinological underpinnings of weight maintenance, I’d say that we should no more bar doctors and nurses from working for weight reasons than we would for needing glasses, being diabetic, or taking statins.

The narrative underlying this idea is based on the now outdated and misunderstood idea that calories in v calories expended is all that matters. As a person with PCOS/hypothyroid who battled to maintain my weight most of my life, and lost that battle due to menopause and illness a few years ago, I know there are often complicated and subtle medical issues underlying less than ideal weight.

If we go down this route anyone with less than perfect health would not be allowed to practice. As a patient it is actually reassuring to be supported by people who have walked a few miles in your shoes and can offer empathy on a human level.

Suspect many of the suggestions will be equally 'well' informed, based on tabloid prejudices over the years (fewer NHS managers despite the NHS being relatively under-managed compared with international benchmarks), no funded treatment for certain conditions (anything that will be inflammatory).

BTW, the last time I looked, obesity was correlated with night time shift work and low pay...

I assume it will be the government who make the final decision on this. Let's start on their house first. From the PM down to the newest MP. Oh, and let's stop subsiding their fancy canteen too. Let them grab sandwiches from the extortionate and unhealthy M&S or Costa that now live inside hospitals.

No, the suggestion was made to humiliate and upset nurses, it's clearly not a genuine comment to improve the NHS as an employer in order to help its employees maintain to develop a more healthy lifestyle. Otherwise that's what it would have said, rather than the absolutely idiotic "maximum BMI" line.

Four million people voted Reform in the election. There are a lot of damn idiots out there. It’s unpleasant when it’s directed at you, but it says more about them.

Obesity isn't ridiculous.

@MagentaRavioli was spot on. It's not about demonising overweight nurses but figuring out why a workforce whose job is about health don't seem to be able to be healthy themselves.

Oh for crying out loud! Obesity is the last bastion of discrimination.

If anything, having no overweight nurses would make obese people feel even more awkward being bodily cared for than then already must do in a world that can’t stop criticising weight. It gets so boring.

There’s currently a thread with a photo of a perfectly healthy-looking boy and everyone is commenting that his belly hangs over his waistband. Lots of rude comments, dire prognoses and then, hypocritically, the word “scrawny” provoked outrage. It’s all double standards and criticism in one direction only these days. I’m so tired of hearing fat bashing - and I’m not even fat so I can’t imagine how obese people feel.

Shift work messes with your eating habits, as does irregular breaks or skipping breaks here and there. Then in the break room is often a big tin of biscuits or box of chocks given by appreciative relatives - no complaints, keep them coming 😉. Hard not to dive in when hungry. I dip but have some restraint so never been overweight. We're only human though, some of us resist better than others.
Not many jobs have a fitness to practice rule, but nursing already does, so if something goes wrong, it can be on your head if you weren't fit enough and hadn't made it known, and it was a factor in an incident. I'd say that's enough protection.

to be honest if you are a caring person I would not care if you were head to toe bright green with antennae
I do however think if people are being advised on their diet for health reasons they might find it awkward if they are being told what they should do by someone who is obese- but that cannot be that common.

Oh god they have taken one batshit comment and made a stupid clickbait article. It is one comment with 3 likes, there are all kinds of suggestions on there, both sensible and batshit. Not worth paying attention too.

Hattie Jaques was definitely in the obese category (and didn't struggle to get work either) One of her most famous roles was that of hospital matron.

Loads of nurses were definitely overweight when I was training in the 1970s too. (And we never wore trousers for work then either)

How silly.