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?

Perhaps if healthcare staff weren’t overworked, understaffed and were able to have amble breaks and rest, we would be able to have better meals whilst at home and at work and not reaching for high sugar snacks and quick meals to get us through long shifts.

The population’s growing size is complex, but to target nursing staff is a horrid example of out of date patriarchy. As others have said, what about the overweight doctors, HCSW, admin staff, phlebotomists, physios, etc, etc.

Try not let this article get to you to much. Be angry at it for a shirt time, rant and let it go. They’ll be suggesting something equally obscure next week.

tour size absolutely does not reflect your ability to do your job.

To those commenting that obese nurses may not be able to run for the crash trolley, it’s amazing the adrenaline that propels you forward. The only time I can think that being slender really helped me was climbing over the top of toilet cubicle to get to a collapsed patient but in hindsight if I’d been bigger I would have kicked the door (as I did when I was pregnant).

“Can’t even prescribe” what do you mean by that? Such insulting language. Nurses have a very challenging job. Sorry if you feel patronised but the nurse is just doing his/her job. If you are overweight they are obliged to tell you and give standard advice regardless of whether or not they are overweight themselves. Nurses are human and can be overweight too. Do you feel the same way about other overweight healthcare professionals or just nurses ?

I think we need to charge £10 for each comment - it will encourage twats to shut up or will give NHS so much needed funds. Either is good.

@soapydopeybubbles please ignore this article and these comments. We value you and like your current size.

The Telegraph has spent the last 3 years blaming the state of the country's economy on the "woke blob" aka UK civil service, we're all lazy wfh not lining their buddies' pockets with our lunch spends.

The moral of the story, the Telegraph are just out to scapegoat this countries problems away from their cronies as much as feasibly possible

Of course you wouldn't. People who think this idea would improve the NHS are people who have been offended at receiving advice to lose weight, and lack the wit to understand that the person giving the advice is simply passing on information for their own good. They imagine the nurse is offering her own opinion rather than NHS guidance and are retaliating.

This.. I've been in hospitals a lot in the last few years and most are overweight. They were all brilliant.

country's

@SilenceInside yes, as I'm lying unconscious, I'd get my scales out and insist they weigh themselves before saving my life.
Don't be so utterly ridiculous! It's quite clear what I meant. You can't give stop smoking advice as you sit there stinking of fags yourself. Same with advice on being a healthy weight.

Unreasonable purely for using the Telegraph as a source.

Ffs student nurses are paying for the privilege of training to be a valued and qualified nurse (others too midwives, doctors etc) If students were taken out of the NHS it would collapse. They do 3 years minimum training on placements whilst juggling assignments and the rest.
They have to be clever, practical and good communicators. So what if they aren't always "thin" but lots of people are only thin not clever etc and think they are superior that's why they bash larger people.

To be fair, the telegraph would deny the holocaust if they thought they could get away with calling it a "popular opinion"
It's a nasty scummy "newspaper" which is for bigots who think they're too clever for the daily mail and the sun.

That's fecking heinous! Especially as sizewize the bmi for obese comes in quite for down the scale, certainly well before your weight would be a problems for patient care.
I can 'possibly see the need for some kind of fitness test, re manual handling etc. If people could agree a criteria of what is essential. HOWEVER- are there no disabled nurses? Surely this is potentially hugely discriminatory?

If I'm going to be completely honest, I'm completely indifferent to whether the HCP 'takes their own health seriously'. I have no interest in whether they are obese, smoke (provided it's not during the consult, I dislike the smell), have a balanced and healthy diet and so on. I am interested in competence and second order issues relevant to the quality of the consult. Thinking about it, I'd have concerns if a surgeon was an alcoholic or drug addict that affected their ability to perform surgery but obesity, not in the slightest. I've been given diet and health advice over the years by slim and by fat GPs and the message had no link to the messenger.

Completely agree with those commenting on how shitty the working conditions are for a lot of health professionals. Hardly any or no proper breaks, no access to cooking facilities, nowhere to store food. Yes, there is usually a fridge but it's always far too small for all of the people on shift together.

Of course you can. You are confusing giving advice (the passing on of objective information with suggestions how the person can apply that to improve their own situation) with role modelling (demonstrating a desired behaviour by example) A health care practitioner is an adviser not a role model. The information they provide about how to lose weight or stop smoking is no less valid if they choose not to apply it in their own lives, is it?

Of course it is ridiculous

people come in all different shapes and sizes

and it really needs to be figured out that low wages, long hours, shift work may play a part for some

I must admit I find it difficult to take health advice from an overweight nurse. Obesity is a serious health problem, and I don't appreciate being told to change my 'bad' habits by someone who obviously has their own.

@Chipsandcheeseandgravy No, not clear as you clearly didn't specify, you simply said you didn't want to be cared for by anyone who didn't take their own health seriously.

What I mean by 'can't even prescribe' is that she's qualified to read the questionnaire to me and fill in my responses, but even when she knows (and so do I) that all answers and measures point to it being safe to take the medicine, she has to go and knock on a doctor's door, and interrupt another consultation, to have a prescription checked and and signed while I wait. It's incredibly inefficient.

I know she's human, and I know she'd need to tell me if I was overweight, and I know she's probably overworked. But it still feels like a massive waste of time to be weighed by someone who gets out of breath walking down the corridor and back.

Stress + no time + poor pay = obesity.

No other profession would receive these comments. Misogyny.

As anyone can make suggestions to that NHS thing. Why don’t people make proper suggestions like better pay, shorter shifts etc.

Dear God, I’ll take a competent, professional nurse however the hell she looks.

When people say ‘nurses’, others generally picture women. There is apparently, nothing worse in the misogynistic world we live in than overweight women. It’s bollocks. Unless extremely fat, overweight men are judged no where near as harshly as overweight women.

Well I for one don’t want to be touched by hands belonging to a Fat Person!!

How does it affect the patient provided they get the care they need? The whole thing is ridiculous and an example of how perverted society has become in their grasping need for an outlet allowing them to denigrate a sector of society.