A Maximum BMI for nurses

[soapydopeybubbles]

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2024/10/21/how-public-thinks-nhs-should-change/

According to the Telegraph one of the most popular ideas for improving the NHS is to have a maximum BMI for nurses. This is from the website set up for suggestions but also continues in the comments for the article.

I'm a neonatal nurse and I am classed as obese. I wear L/XL scrubs and I'm a dress size 14-16.

Does the public honestly think that I'd be a better nurse if I was thinner? Or, as written in the comments, if I wore a cap and apron, had no tattoos and didn't dye my hair?

I'm a large woman but I'm pretty sure I wasn't magically better and making up complex medications, changing ridiculously tiny nappies and resuscitating sick newborns when I was rather thinner than I am now.

I can see why people might have the opinion that if we're giving out health advice we should lead by example but it's mainly the doctors giving the advice and the nurses doing the hands on caring.

I just don't understand why there seems to be such a focus on how a particular staff group looks, rather than the actual issues in the NHS.

AIBU?

Because people are arses. From an overweight oncologist.

It's the Telegraph - the only people more obnoxious than the rabid right wing muppets who write it are the ones who read it, and it's been even more insane over the last twelve months or so than it was before.

Don't take a blind bit of notice 👍

What about the doctors? And the physios? And the OTs? And the receptionists! I’d never trust a GPS that had a fat receptionist!

But seriously, this is the telegraph that is read by a lot of thin wealthy middle class types who’s husbands are pissed off that the female nurses uniform they like to dress up in at the weekend is no longer current issue.

@soapydopeybubbles oh, that is an awful thing for people to suggest. I couldn't have cared less what size the neonatal nurses were that cared for my two children when they were born. Pretty sure my two babies didn't care either. I was grateful for all of them and their impeccable care for my babies. Thank you for what you do.

The public isn't a hive mind. But yes, there are over 60 million people in the UK. Some of them think this. Some of them think they are Napolean!

People are dicks. But also, I wonder whether it isn’t a sort of imagined nostalgia where people want to go back to a time they’ve seen in the films where dainty nurses in starched uniforms had time to bustle about patients offering copious cups of tea and doing hospital corners on the bed linen. A kind of knee jerk reaction to the chaos of the modern NHS.

Oh gosh I couldn’t care less what size the medical professionals I or my family see are. I care more that they are good at their job and friendly and caring.

It's on you for reading the Torygraph.

Male (straight) responders want hot nurses so fuck them. Female (ditto) responders could be judgmental twats who wouldn't cross the road to piss on a patient.

My cousin is an overweight nurse. I'd take her care in a second.

Lol, there'd be hardly any nurses left as a high proportion are overweight. Great nurses come in all shapes and sizes.

Yeah but there are a lot of obese nurses who cannot do their job properly because of it. I once had a job supporting student nurses on placement and one of them couldn’t do all her community nursing visits as she couldn’t walk far enough or get up several flights of stairs.

I’d also question their moving and handling techniques and their ability to run for a defib/crash trolley and do CPR.

I know it’s a complex issue but I do think that the number of obese nurses is significantly increasing (along with obesity in the general population) and I do think it is becoming an issue. Nursing is a hugely physical job at times and the very obese are putting themselves and their patients at risk IMHO.

As we know, BMI is not a reliable tool for assessing overweight and obesity, so I wouldn’t say we should be using that. But I think if a person’s weight/size impairs their ability to do all aspects of their job, then they shouldn’t be nursing.

With 40,000 nursing vacancies in the NHS I don’t think we can avoid having overweight nurses without refusing to treat overweight patients. What a load of bollocks.

So many people are really, really dumb.

You only have to spend 10 mins on MN to become aware that a significant portion of the population think fat people should, at best, be rounded up and put into zoos. Whatever you have achieved, however loving, capable, compassionate, friendly, brilliant, etc you may be, if you are fat, that is all you are and nothing else matters. It's a vile and depressing opinion but it's so pervasive (and they will turn up on this thread soon enough).

Maybe if your job didn’t require you to do shift patterns that destabilise your eating and sleeping patterns you would find maintaining a healthier weight easier.

but who would look after the tiny babies at night?

@Pippa246 being unable to do your job can already be dealt with workplace management systems. No need for some kind of global policy that doesn't care about people's individual competencies.

Gets 🍿

Maybe those of us happy to have staff, whatever size they are, could go to the front of the queue. Let the haters wait for the models.

I had an amazing nurse once she was probably overweight, met lovely nurses of all sizes, the shit ones also come in all sizes.

I haven't read the article but I assume it was pointed out that shift work, lack of regular breaks, and lack of access/time to prepare and cook fresh, healthy meals all contribute to weight management issues and that the author has a plan to tackle this issue for nurses?

Honestly the most idiotic idea I’ve heard for a while.

1. we need more nurses not fewer.
2. It suggests that the speaker has misunderstood what nurses do. They’re medical professionals giving medical advice. That advice is valid whether the person giving it is far or thin. So much of our attitude to excess weight is tied up with moral ideas about greed etc, which leads to all sorts of weird conclusions (that a fat nurse suggesting you lose weight is a hypocrite or that someone losing weight with the help of a medical intervention is somehow cheating).. The sooner we can move away from these childish ideas and face up to the obesity crisis as adults, the better.

Isn't your BMI really high if you are muscular? So if you weight lift or are an athlete you can't be a nurse?

YABU for reading the twattygraph.

I once when working on an extremely busy Oncology ward where we never stopped running around for 12 hours was told by an elderly patient " I'm surprised your so fat the way you run around ". It's not just telegraph readers that are rude !

Thanks for what you do. Please let that stay with you, not the mean comments.

Amen to this! And be paid a pittance while doing it.

What would be a good idea for nurses would be to pay them more, regardless of their size.