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?

I would have thought that being a paediatric nurse involves more than purely advising mothers about breastfeeding.

but if you were advising someone to bf and then left the room to bottle feed your own baby and they saw that (logistically unlikely for many reasons) then the message of "breast is best " would be diluted.

I hardly think that means you should give up your valuable work though.

I would have thought that being a paediatric nurse involves more than purely advising mothers about breastfeeding.

Of course it does, breast feeding support is only a very small part of the role but by OP's logic i would be setting a bad example because i never breastfed.
Just because i bottle fed does mean that i can't or don't support breast feeding in the same way that just because a nurse is overweight it doesn't mean she can't support her patients to adopt a healthy lifestyle.
The NHS is not a 'lead by example' organisation. We are told what we have to promote to patients by the DOH.

Being a nurse is not just about delivering health promotion information though.
I worked in ITU some years ago now (in the days before anyone was expected to offer health advice really)
I have been a drinker and a smoker in my time. This did not diminish my abilities in a challenging field.
But I'm not naive enough to imagine that actions do not speak louder than words.

doesn't mean.

god i need to slow down when i type

Dontcallme we'd all pass the exercise test with flying colours unless we were a ward manager but not so sure about the wine!!

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.

well I put my pedometer on at work the other day and I wallked 12km in one shift, that enough excercise for you?

My DM was told she needed to lose weight by her doctor. Who is fat. Was DM offended? No. Did she think the doctor was a hypocrite? No.

In fact, DM felt that the doctor understood that losing weight is easier said than done. She certainly didn't think that he lost the right to give her medical advice because he happened to be overweight.

I'm a palliative care nurse. Do I have to die every day to effectively nurse my patients?

OP you are talking bollocks.

punkrockergirl
I think you being obtuse.
The op didn't suggest that a nurse should share the conditions she treats.
(fwiw, I was a midwife before having children and I've heard all the lines on that one).
But the point is that the health promotion/ lifelstyle message becomes diluted if the person delivering it is seen to be veering from the advice given.
Now, you all can get as defensive and sardonic as you like. (sardonic wit being my very favourite tbh)
And maybe health promotion isn't important.
But the fact remains that ppl are less likely to consider changing their behaviour in a healthy direction if the person telling them to do so is clearly not following their own advice.

And jee no, the doctor hadn't lost his "right" to give advice.
But again, his message is statistically less likely to be effective as it comes from someone who is overweight.

Amanda. You or the OP know nothing about this nurse or the reasons she is overweight or smokes. SHe is paid to give advice not to follow it. End of.

Health care professionals are drawn from society,they reflect aspects of society
I don't think nurse/doctor/OT need necessarily to be 5-a-day non smoking
They do need to be empathic,competent,and knowledgable

Actually health promotion is far more complicated than the simple correlative relationship the OP sees. The role of a nurse is so much more than that of offering advice. She is there to motivate, to help patients identify obstacles to their care and regaining of good health and healthy behaviours. She is there to help motivate YOU and her ability to do this is not predicated upon her own choices. We all know some things are less 'good' for us but the reasons why we do what we do is something that health promotion research would love to unlock, definitively. If a slim person eats like shit, never exercises and has stress levels through the roof you would never know.

If you saw me you would think I was super healthy. I am slim, look young for my age and never exercise. My diet is pretty hit and miss too. I have colleagues fatter than me who I think are probably just as healthy if you compared lab and phys exam results.

Should midwives who choose to not have a minimal intervention birth be banned from delivering babies born to mothers who choose no intervention?

If a mental health professional has experienced mental health problems should they be banned from giving service users advice on relapse prevention? Would this weaken their message or strengthen it? Would it weaken it if they had a long term history of Depressive or anxiety disorders? Make them look less credible? Or more understanding of the realities of illness and the ways in which it may be expressed?

If a chiropodist wears Louboutins should they be banned from practising?

Seriously OP- you are projecting your own failures onto somebody else and clearly need to readjust that locus of control to an internal one- then you might lose the weight for your own benefit.

What happens if a member of the clergy behaves in a less than perfect manner? Should they give the cloth up instantly because clearly they have no right to offer support or guidance?

As for a dentist with bad teeth- I would assume that they had a phobia about having their own teeth done, a problem such as Sjogrens which can cause rapid deterioration of the teeth or simply cared less about their own teeth than those of others. I am only concerned with the work they do to my teeth and that their advice is evidence based and up to date and their care compassionate, competent and safe.

I agree with you OP.

I got ticked off for being slightly overweight by a nurse the size of a barrel.

They should practice what they preach.

So did you take her message onboard or not?

Seriously OP- you are projecting your own failures onto somebody else and clearly need to readjust that locus of control to an internal one- then you might lose the weight for your own benefit.

Really? and where exactly does it say I'm overweight?

(For the record I don't and have never smoked either)
But, thanks for the bit of armchair psychology advice!

I probably would have thought liked you think now op about 10 years ago.
But times have moved on and so have peoples' weight.

Hardly armchair OP seeing as I have been in the business for over thirty years.

Fact is she probably thought you looked like you needed that advice. I wouldn't waste precious consult time advising somebody who I could see lived a healthy life or whose notes indicated that.

Maybe you looked like a smoker? Or a heavy drinker?

No offense Phantom, you automatically jumped to the conclusion that I was overweight myself, so can you blame we for thinking you were armchair

Unfortunately my healthcheck was boringly brilliant normal. :)

I think that nurse clearly thought you needed that advice and maybe you need to think about that as opposed to looking for ways to avoid taking it seriously.

As for what you think of me, well that doesn't matter. For one, you are the one who went to all the trouble of starting a thread about it and secondly, most psychological responses are pretty predictable ones and there is nothing about your post that indicates that you are one of life's less predictable people. On face value n all.

HCPs don't offer health advice to those who don't need it. We have far more important work to be doing.

I don't believe you.

See, I don't fully agree with the idea that you must practise what you preach. But, I have used this strategy with my MIL to great effect - "you see MIL, it's not that I'm completely discounting your advice to start on the rusks at 6 weeks, but the current guidelines suggest 6 months and as a HCP I feel I'd be lacking in integrity if I didn't stick to them without

...good reason"

Silly phone.