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?

I haven't RTFT however.... I was very slim once upon a time, but in the grips of an eating disorder. I couldn't function properly, felt ineffective with CPR, dizzy, lack of concentration.. all this whilst working in a massive a&e department. Now, I am considered overweight but healthy and not gripped by that eating disorders voice. I am a much more effective nurse now than I was when I was slim. Slim does not equal healthy.

Which is obviously the only healthcare setting.

@Kirbert2 thinking of you and your little boy and everything crossed for a good outcome.

I can't imagine any one giving a flying fig about what size any medical professional is. All people care about is that they're professional and good at their job. Rage baiting media again! They need to give it a rest.

Has anyone asked the blind patients what they think of the fat nurses?!

@IdentityCrisis101 I'm glad you are now healthier as that feeling of not being well enough but having to carry on is awful. Having enough energy to live is a strong motivator to recover, whatever size you are.

I don't think we can afford to lose even one more nurse from the profession, I do question the Telegraph about even publishing this, I suspect hardly anyone suggested this and all the focus is on that rather than the concrete sensible suggestions. It is also quite shaming of nurses who are overweight or obese when, like all of us, they are just living in their bodies in the world doing their jobs. It won't help them tomorrow morning, will it?

Only nurses? No other HCPs are overweight? What a disgustingly biased and offensive article.

Maybe a good start would be for employers such as hospitals to offer healthy food options for staff, particularly out of hours. A vending machine meal is sometimes the only option available. And that is only if staff have the time to access the machine and actually sit down and eat . Unsurprisingly they have to grab something quick and easy to eat on the run.

This and when on late/night shifts no nourishing food available just ultra processed. Those who do the most caring for others often don’t have the time/energy to look after themselves as they put others welfare first

That would be same public that voted for Brexit and Boaty McBoatface. People are idiots.

Whilst I do agree that being slimmer doesn’t make you a better nurse, nor does the colour of your hair/piercings or tattoos. I think the problem lies with someone heavily overweight telling you to loose weight.

I have indeed. I’m not entirely sure of the point you are making though! I’m thinking it’s about how M&H training is standardised to the ward setting and not applicable in community? Not sure what this has to do with obesity but I would argue that situations like you describe would be a lot more challenging if one was obese.

If there are genuinely nurses too large to properly care for patients then they should not be signing their declaration of good health and character.

I confess that I once (stupidly) judged a very large student midwife that I was working with. She was fantastic and it had absolutely no bearing on her ability to give care.

One fat person does not represent all fat people.

There are so many posters here who aren't actually listening to the actual question but who just want to respond defensively .......... and I wonder why.

Yes, medical professionals can be excellent care providers, despite their clothes size and despite their BMI .

But there is also the perception that employees are the representatives of their employers - or is that an outdated concept these days?

If the NHS is advocating a healthy lifestyle with BMI parameters / weight management / healthy lifestyles, then the public expects to see employees reflecting that advice.

@SilenceInside
No, the suggestion was made to humiliate and upset nurses

I really don't think it was? Why would anyone want to humiliate and upset nurses??
It's possibly a valid question because it's within a health care setting??

And nurses are not above reproach just because they're nurses - I have experienced nurses ignoring patients on more than one occasion because they were just too busy chatting at the nurses' station to pay attention to the needs of the people in their care.

@Pippa246
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.

I've got to admit I agree. But not just in nursing - in any job setting

*@MagentaRavioli was spot on. It's not about demonising overweight nurses but figuring out why a workforce whose job is about health don't seem to be able to be healthy themselves.

Well put!

@Munie
I do find it patronising that I have to make an appointment with a nurse to tick the boxes on a questionnaire for my repeat pill prescription where she weighs me, while bursting out of her uniform.
I already know I need to maintain a healthy weight, drink only the advised units, not smoke and ensure my blood pressure is normal etc (for the medication and generally) and can measure and report all that that myself.
When the nurse can't even prescribe, and tries to make the 10 minute appointment I've had to make and get to 'worthwhile', it always consists of giving me advice I can tell she doesn't follow herself.

Again - well put!

*@Dymaxion I have a BMI of 45 and work in the community, there isn't any task I can't do or patient I can't manage to get to, due to my weight.^

Can I ask what are your tasks within the community? Is it physical tasks or admin tasks?

It's also true that 'patients' (a very impersonal description for the people you help) can feel a lack of confidence in their community healthcare providers but feel unable to say anything in case their 'support' is withdrawn

YANBU. This won’t happen, not enough good nurses as there is, so hiring based on appearance would be the NHS shooting itself in their own foot even further -aren’t about half the population technically classed as overweight anyway, so it would seriously limit the staffing pool?

I admit I do have a slight internal smirk if a doctor or nurse comments on my weight and they are as big as me -but it’s rarely happened, I suspect they leave that job to the thin ones! 🤣

Same newspaper that will go absolutely raving mental if you suggest people walk 15 minutes to the shops instead of driving. So possibly not actually all that concerned about obesity really.

Oh good, maybe they'll give them all a pay rise, more time off and a free gym pass, so they can have the resources to look after themselves better. I'd be all for that!

I'm slightly overweight for my height. Got told to lose weight by a nurse practitioner at my GP, who is older but thinner than me. This was last year. Perimenopause has left me with high BP and I take meds for it. I'd have been slightly annoyed if the very overweight nurse, who did my smear last year, had said the same thing if she'd been doing my BP meds review. I know they're only doing their job but still...

The very overweight nurse was much nicer than the nurse practitioner by the way.

I really don't mind what nurses in hospital look like provided they are pleasant and doing their best under stressful conditions. They do such an amazing job!

Sorry haven't read full thread but I think staff in NHS should be fit and healthy. 1) as a good example to others 2) because we value you and need you to be fit and healthy for the job. 3) because it is a job requiring full health in order to be functional. Please note, this does not mean being a certain size.
Recently I had to see to a family member at hospital over a few months and I was shocked at the lack of healthy options for eating. I think you should be provided with free healthy food as part of the job.

@Pippa246 to be fair the parrot didn't discriminate between fat or thin colleagues ! And the situations I described are common place and equally challenging regardless of the nurses weight. If anything climbing onto a king sized bed to reach the patient as an obese nurse has the advantage that the bed dips and they automatically roll towards you

The issue is not nurses being obese.
It is obese nurses telling patients they need to lose weight.
The issue is not to say nurses must not be fat.... Its that they need to stop the nonsense of nurses being instructed to counsel you on your weight regardless of what you go in for!!

Maybe if staffing levels were better, people would have time to eat well instead of on the run. This suggestion is so stupid, all while care is being hived off to private providers left and right.

Well this nails it.
As for The Telegraph I wouldn't wipe my arse with it.

Plenty of people are also misogynist.

I don't think it's coincidence that the only healthcare profession to be singled out for targeted fat-shaming is the one that happens to be female dominated.

@QueenofAssam when on late/night shifts no nourishing food available just ultra processed

Patients have no choice and have to contend with hospital over-cooked and unhealthy meals.

You have a choice. You can take in pre-prepared healthier food if you choose - much like any other shift worker?

I've done shift work and always managed to take in something a wee bit healthier ....??!

Why isn't it possible in the NHS? - genuine question

I am brilliant at giving other people advice and always manage to come up with ways that they can help themselves. Do you know what I'm really shit at? Taking my own advice lol, if a fat nurse tells me I'm fat (I am) and gives me advice on how to go about losing it and eating healthier then I will take that advice from them even if they are way bigger than me. I really doubt any overweight nurse is oblivious to their own size and is telling someone smaller than them to lose weight to be a prick.