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?

My little boy has just finished 4 rounds of treatment for burkitts lymphoma. Oncologists, as well as nurses on the oncology ward are bloody amazing.

I don’t care what they look like, they saved my sons life.

Thank you for what you do.

Absolutely. It’s one of the toughest jobs going.

Other suggestions included a Wetherspoons in every hospital, and GPs to be written into patients' wills signed Dr H Shipman.

I don't think it's meant sincerely.

Sure, just as soon as they get rid of shift working patterns, low pay, have a 24hr subsidised staff canteen AND protected time to take full breaks, full staffing on all wards all the time, ability to take annual leave at time convenient to the employee, safe sustainable transport routes to work, onsite staff gyms and crèche.

Cortisol levels must be through the roof for nurses, it’s no surprise many gain weight. Refuse the stress they are under and increase the salary.

Obvs this is a stupid idea

but we should ask ourselves if the NHS is an obesogenic employer. Are healthcare professionals at a lower or higher rate of obesity than other similar demographics. If a nurse is more likely to be living with obesity than someone of a similar background then the NHS should think about how to modify workplaces and working patterns so that it isn’t damaging workforce health.

Many hospitals don’t have heathy appetising food available for staff when they need it, at an affordable price. Many working patterns don’t allow healthcare professionals to drink enough water and take appropriate toilet breaks. I think these are the things we should really look at in the NHS. If fewer staff are living with obesity or overweight we would have reduced sickness rates and greater productivity, as well as better quality of life for staff.

Let's face it, i think we all know this is mostly driven by people being heartily sick of being told pointedly by a fat practice nurse that they 'need to lose weight'.
It really, really weakens the messaging that losing some weight is so crucial for your health - and so straightforward to achieve!! When its delivered by someone who hasn't successfully achieved a healthy bmi themselves.

Precisely

What happened to the one who couldn’t complete her visits? Like if she passed her course what happened to her when she would her been on a job and presumably would have had to have done those jobs as they were assigned to her?! Or did she fail due to it?

It’s very hard to deal with this sort of thing once someone has a permanent contract. What would they do - tell them they are getting sacked if they don’t lose weight?

My point is that if you can’t nurse “competently” because of your size, you are not a safe practitioner. This is echoed the NMC standards of proficiency for registered nurses. And I know people will come in and say “you can be fat and fit” and “skinny people can be unhealthy too” - but we cannot deny that very obese people are generally quite unfit/unhealthy.

How utterly ridiculous

I would prefer not to be the only nurse on shift (which happens most of the time), I couldn’t care less what size my colleagues are as long as they can do their job properly!

I wonder if a minimum BMI would be introduced too?

No - her mentor basically just left her in the car if there was a long walk to the patient’s house (quite a rural community) and tried to take her on less strenuous visits. The mentor felt this came under “reasonable adjustments” and her weight could be managed as a disability. She did go on to qualify.

@Pippa246 you've just highlighted the competency that could be taken further and taken to the NMC for action. It's not about telling them they'll be sacked if they don't lose weight. It's telling them that they are failing a competency and that the relevant action will be taken.

This is ludicrous. A close friend is a firefighter and her BMI is in the morbidly obese category, it's all muscle. As is a friend who is an Olympian.

People can have higher BMI and be healthier than people in lower or 'average' BMI. More and more studies are proving BMI is only one aspect of the overall picture of health.

Presumably she didn’t choose community nursing. There are plenty of other nursing jobs.

Of course it's popular, that's the level of many people now, absolutely rabid about weight and can't see past it.

If a medical professional tells me something then I'll pay heed to it, whatever size they are. They're the ones who went to medical school; I didn't.

Why have you posted this particular snippet, OP? It was one of those stupid suggestions that made it abundantly clear that it's not worth asking the public their narrow views on anything. I'm wondering what your motives are...

Stepmother is a nurse, works in resus. She would be classed as overweight. She's s bloody hard working and brilliant nurse.

How silly.

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)

I promise that I don't usually read The Telegraph. The article popped up on Google news and I couldn't stop myself.

I understand that I'm overweight and that being overweight is associated with health issues. I know that my diet is awful and that there are lifestyle changes I could make that would benefit my health.

However, I also work shifts, take antidepressants associated with weight gain, care for my terminally ill Dad and have two young children with challenging additional needs.

I know I shouldn't take it personally but it's really got under my skin.

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.

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.

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.

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.