To expect a Nurse lead by example?

[shouldacoulda]

And practice what they preach.
Have just clocked the overweight nurse that did my recent health check, smoking like a chimney and munching on a chocolate bar!

This is somebody who sat there and lectured me on cutting down on carbs, eating oily fish once a week, not smoking and to drink in moderation.
It's a bit rich!

We expect fitness trainers to be fit and lead healthy lifestyles.
So, surely somebody who's job it is to advice people on healthy lifestyle choices should also be fairly fit, of a decent weight and not be puffing away like a chimney.
How can we take their advice seriously otherwise?

Or am I being unreasonable? (I know they work long hours and there's a lot of stress), but surely the ones that are doing the health checks and doling out 'healthy living advice' should be an advertisement for what they're saying?

Is it ok for a police officer to be a thief when he's off-duty?

Strange comparison.

smallworld you do realise 'touched a nerve' is a phrase only employed by sock puppets and idiots without a rational argument?

Ergo small, perhaps all we nurses and doctors should have an illness and or disability too then? So that we know what it's like for our patients?

Fwiw, I'm an auxiliary nurse and I'm overweight. I spent Friday and Saturday dealing with amongst other things - a patient who wanted to hit me, another who vomited on my shoes, another who sprayed me with a shower hose accidentally, another who defecated on me, another who spent 12 hours sobbing on and off, another who will probably die before Christmas..

Not one of those patients told me that they didn't want my help because I'm overweight. In fact I was given several cuddles from two, offered a box of chocolates from another and given sincere thanks goodness knows how many times.

In fact, most people who are unwell and/or in need of some advice are generally very grateful indeed for those who are willing to help - no matter what they look like or how they live their life in their own time away from the workplace.

This thread is hilarious. Well done op, you've cheered me up after a shitty day.

Lovely post shouldnt

I'm working as an HCA at present and still have 2 stone to lose.. not helped by the (mostly lovely) grateful patients who leave chocolates in our office.

Obviously the public aren't that bothered about nurses' weights or they would buy fruit instead!

And yes to unsociable hours.

I get up at 5, I get to work for 6:45am. I work from 7am til 7.15pm. I get three breaks, from 15 minutes to 45 depending on which boss is on. I get access to a fridge shared by up to 50 other staff members every day.

I get home normally by 8.30, after catching two buses, have a quick shower and try to be in bed by 9.15.

Unfortunately when you are on a 3 day run of shifts, it's very difficult to motivate yourself or find the time to even consider cooking a proper meal or doing anything that requires a considerable amount of prep beyond placing in a box for transport.

And yes - you can take a salad and fruit in for lunch.. But you tell me this - when you've dealt with a terminally ill grandma who's got six weeks left, and a brain damaged teen who doesn't recognise their family, what are you going to eat? A banana, or the slice of cake your colleague's offering you?

Thing is most nurses/hcp's would much rather discuss the relevant issues specific to the patient in front of them, but (and it's especially the case with health checks) they have to spout the script and tick a box.

Clearly you're already amazingly virtuous and won't find the basic information particularly useful or a shock, but it might prompt someone else to ask about further support.

MOT's aren't likely to be that nurses reason for living, if she's a practice nurse I'm pretty certain her skills and passions lie far, far away from dishing out lifestyle advice and taking blood pressures. She doesn't need to be svelte if her diabetic insulin support is second to none, perform a quick painless smear in 30 seconds or manage to immunise a toddler without making them cry.....

What a horrible thread. OP you sound like a twat.

Are you the bitch who pretty much said that to my face last week in work?

I'm not a nurse but I am a health professional and I was giving out advice to a very large person (much bigger than me) in a completely non judgemental manner and she told me she couldn't take me seriously because I clearly have a visible weight problem (am a size 16).

I do get embarrassed giving out weight advice (don't smoke or drink so I can polish my halo there I guess) but my weight has nothing to do with my work and she was bang out of order saying that.

I wonder how she would have reacted when I told her why I'm so overweight? Baby weight + grief weight from death of parent + medication weight due to the tablets I had to take to stop me killing myself.

I can and will lose the weight when I am able to commit to it.

But people like you will struggle to lose that kind of shitty attitude OP.

I'm a cleaner, my house is a not that clean ATM. The reasons is that I'm off my feet and DH trying to work plus do all the housework I normally take great pleasure in doing.

There are two problems[at least] with what you say.

1. The problem was that you saw her.

If you hadnt seen her, you would have gone on your way merrily. But it is a bit naive to think that every doctor you meet always follows the advice that they dish out.

2.She is paid by the Government.
If it was a private clinic that you went to, then yes, I assume[dont know for sure, never been to one] that they would employ someone who didnt smoke.
That is what most people would expect I would think.
But you went to a public employee and didnt directly pay. So you will get what you are given.

i hear you OP. my daughters went to dance school that was taken over by a dance teacher who, in her mid twenties was really overweight, constantly drank coke and had gout. Sometimes you have to be a role model.

They're not saying 'this is what you MUST do and I do the same'. They're saying..'this is the advice that the DOH recommend and it's up to you ic you take it'. Because you know, adults should be able to understand the information and make their own decision about it and don't need to follow other people. Instead of going 'miss!miss!, SHE'S not doing it!'.

Grow up.

It's like coaches of sports teams or teachers.

Coaches and teachers don't have to be able to play to a high level, they simply have to be able to bring out the best in others.

We'd be very low on numbers of teachers, but he's, coaches, doctors etc if they had to be performing to a very high level themselves.

I think YABU, and I agree with bonkers, the comparison with an off duty police officer stealing doesn't work.

Nurses work long, anti-social shifts, often without access to somewhere to refrigerate a healthy lunch, or time to take a proper break. They are paid to give advice, not to be beyond reproach in their own lifestyles. For me, the most important qualities a nurse can have are compassion and empathy, and we should extend those qualities to nurses rather than judging them. (Am not a nurse btw).

Personally, I think YANBU
It's one of the reasons that nhs employees are not permitted to smoke when they're at work.
They not just there to read out the latest govt leaflet. They're supposed to be trained in the area of therapeutic intervention in order to affect changes.

My GP used to smoke. In surgery. Without a shadow of a doubt his behaviour dented the effect of his advice.
I mean, no need to be perfect, but they should at least put on some show of adherence to advice they're giving.
It is a known fact that we do what we see and not what we're told. Which is why so many children of smokers become smokers etc.

Why bother making an effort to lose weight when even the person advising you to do so can't do that themselves?

Not more bloody fat bashing.

The only time I got pissed off with a nurse smoking was when she was doing below the window of the paed ward where my DD was when she had cancer.
Every fucking break she would sneak out for a fag under our window.
I admit I did shout at her to bugger off and smoke somewhere else.

Other than that its none of my business.

But if you get diabetes when you're older will it be a comfort to you to know that maybe that practice nurse from years ago may also have it?

I'm sure that knowledge will be a comfort when you're having your foot amputated.

Why bother making an effort to lose weight when even the person advising you to do so can't do that themselves?

Because we should be doing it for our own benefit.
We should be able at our grown up age to not be swayed by merely just one person in the universe.

I don't think it's fat bashing or anti nurse to make these observations.
It's harder to have a healthy lifestyle with stressful work and irregular shifts. But it's even more important to do so really.
And to say that someone who works crappy hours is "excused" for being unhealthy sort of writes them off.
It reminds me of the very priveleged and put of touch MPs who made comments some years ago about people in poverty and smoking. That for some it was "all they had". Way to condemn an already struggling population to a life of ill health and early death.

Fine. Smoke. But do it out of sight.
Or maybe take your own advice and quit. It will immeasurably improve your quality of life and it will make your healthy message more convincing.

Joysmum great comparison.

I think sometimes it can be sad to see someone who obviously knows better than anyone what the results of poor lifestyle choices can be but who is in a place where they are still making those choices.

A friend's brother was a brilliant consultant cardiologist, real whizzkid type. He died, massively obese and with a coke habit, in his mid 40s. Totally tragic as he must have seen so clearly what was coming but was clearly so unhappy inside that he didn't turn away from that path.

That is obviously way more extreme than a size 16 nurse but if anything, I would assume such a nurse had a bit more life experience and empathy, and also was probably sadly fully aware of what her lifestyle could do to her.

FGS. I'm a paeds nurse and as part of my paid role I am trained to support mum's to breastfeed. I bottle fed my son.

Maybe i should quit following your logic!

But we don't do we? make the effort to lose weight
Not as a nation.
I know it sounds a bit smug (coming from a slim person) but the healthy lifestyle message is heard more clearly when it's from the lips of someone who follows (or at least appears to follow) the same path.

You may have opened a can of worms there fairgame!

So, nurses
never have unprotected sex (if they're FP trained)
never drink more than 2 glasses of wine a week
exercise 30 min 5 times a week
eat 12 portion of fruit & veg or whatever the latest guidelines are?
The NHS is going to be thin on the ground

I know it sounds a bit smug (coming from a slim person) but the healthy lifestyle message is heard more clearly when it's from the lips of someone who follows (or at least appears to follow) the same path.

If people use that as an excuse, then there is no hope. Because some areas of Britain have a high proportion of overweight people around them. Which must skew peoples' perceptions and motivation.