To expect fat nurses to have some insight?.

[Vikingess]

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.

Oh and yes to the lack of focus on nutrition.

I don't think there is enough focus though on nutrition in the NHS generally.

Hospitals would much prefer if patient need feeding. The food is 🤮 and the elderly infirm don't get enough help being fed.

No, you are wrong. We were also monitored during training.
And we were taught an awful lot about dietary stuff through education and training,; i can still give you chapter and verser about the breakdown physically and physiologically, of a cheese sanswich, what your body gets from it and how, and then...what happens to your shite from anus to sea.
So yes, qualified perfectly to give dietary advice with my non-fat arse
But then again, patients used to listen to, and take the advice of, medical and nursing staff, now they think because they've watched an episode of Casualty, they know best, and that abusing or assaulting staff is acdeptable.

I think there are some standards that professionals should meet.

All teachers should be good at least- most are but too many who aren't are tolerated in schools. We owe it to children.

Health professionals should be required to meet standards- in relation to weight, drug-taking, alcoholism, smoking. I'm not suggesting they can't be overweight but there should be a tolerance limit. Drugs/alcohol on duty should be absolute no-nos (for safety reasons) and there should be occasional random testing.

The same should apply to police and armed-services re weight, drugs, alcohol. Fat soldiers or policemen are unlikely to be able to do the job. Now we have numbers who can not pass the fitness tests required because of weight but they keep their jobs.

How do you know they're not able to follow it the advice and why does that have any bearing on their ability to give it? People can be overweight for reasons connected to medication or endocrine issues. I accept it's more likely to be lifestyle but I gained 4st with medication as a fit and active 20 something. They also may choose not to follow the advice. They have their own bodily autonomy as do patients.

Overweight people really cannot exist happily can they?

Shouldn’t wear certain clothes because ewwww it looks gross, shouldn’t fly in economy because ewwww their fat might touch my cashmere pashmina, shouldn’t enjoy a takeaway every now and again because they’re all so gluttonous and greedy and now they shouldn’t have certain jobs!

For what it’s worth, my best friend is a nurse in a GP surgery and has been battling bulimia for 15 years. She very often gives her patients diet and lifestyle advice, but I suppose it’s okay coming from her because she’s slim thus appearing to be healthy?

Medical condition is usually a small percentage of people overweight.

Some of my overweight friends admit they love cake and hate exercise and they don't need to pretend it's medical reason. They could be good nurses, I just wouldn't take their lifestyle advice unless it was backed by research/national guidelines.

My friend is a nurse and overweight, mainly because she does 12 hour shifts usually with no break so has to eat what she can when she can so usually crap food 4 days a week. On her days off she tries to be healthy, her kids are healthy weights and eat well.

It’s like nurses on wards with people who have smoking related illnesses and the nurses smoke.

The portion size of in patient food - do they think everyone has the appetite of a 93 year old?

Hence why I see Deliveroo and their rivals in the lift hall of my local hospital studying which floor they need

Why are so many more nurses seriously overweight or obese now when compared with pre-1980s?
For the same reasons as for the rest of the population.

The increibly powerful ‘Big Food’ industry has changed our eating habits, pushed constant snacking on us, and the lab-developed hyperpalatable non-food full of substances which mess up our hungry:full signalling. UPF is where the tobacco industry was in the 1960s before legislation was introduced.

Most hospitals are (real) food deserts.
They need quick, cheap healthy options to grab and go.
Maybe nurses could wear a ‘I know it’s tough but let’s both ditch UPF’ badge!

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.

Well i wouldn't assume much intelligence when a 'professional' who knows the health consequences of malnutrition allows themselves to become malnurished and then thinks they can tell others, in their 'professional' capacity, about nutrition.
Your response assumes all nurses are women; quite judgy in itself

being slim doesn’t mean you have a good diet? My stepdad is very slim but his diet is fucking atrocious.

you cannot tell someone’s health and diet from looking at them.

I think the OP has a point. I used to work in a community health-adjacent role and the majority of health visitors I worked with were overweight and inactive. Part of the job they were funded to do was to encourage people to take more exercise and of the 25 I worked with only 2-3 went for an occasional walk. None of them could advise on activity because it was absent from their own lives. They couldn’t even tell patients what the local pool was like because they had never been there.

There are lots of reasons you can have a fat body, not just diet.

so YABU, dense and mean spirited.

Do you tell your kids to be kind to others because you don’t know what they’re going through? If so, maybe you shouldn’t be giving that advice either.

Hospitals would much prefer if patient need feeding. The food is 🤮 and the elderly infirm don't get enough help being fed.

Just noticed I missed out the word "didn't" 

They'd prefer if patients didn't need feeding!

Hopefully like @notedbiscuits you guess what I meant!

We were also monitored during training.

Your weight was monitored during training?

When and where was this?

I'm overweight and in a healthcare related role. It's good for relatability. I always go with 'look I know I'm hardly one to talk' etc. Weight loss is hard, finding time to exercise is hard. There are barriers, we know that. Good health professionals should be on your side, they should be advocating for you, not punishing or judging you.

The trouble is that it's very easy to ignore good advice that you do not want to hear when it comes from someone who clearly pays no attention to that advice themselves. It can make you think, why should I listen to that hypocrite?

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?

It feels to me a bit mad that a struggling health service would even give dietary and lifestyle advice. I mean, is there really a need these days? Do people live under a rock and the first person telling them about healthy eating is a government nurse?

I completely agree with you and sadly fatness is not called out enough by health professionals. Always think the same of fat police men and women. Couldn't chase anybody down if they tried.
But you will be called out for your frankness on here as fat shaming is not allowed.

i remember the dietitian where i worked in the 1980s was pretty plump
otoh they are just doing their jobs, it is not their life

Hahaha, me too! Currently pregnant with a Noriday baby