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 know it's not the point of the thread but at a 14-16 you aren't large, I think that's pretty much average.

Unless someone is so overweight they can’t carry out their jobs, weight shouldn’t matter. I am weighed and measured at every hospital appointment due the health condition I have. I don’t believe the weight of the HCP who is doing this, prevents them from monitoring me, giving me good advice or treatment. I don’t care about the weight of my GP, nurses or consultants . I just want them to be competent, caring and knowledgeable. You can know that you’re overweight and know what you need to do to lower it. Doesn’t mean you can do it, for a whole lot of reasons. Seems like a shit stirring article to me.

It doesn't at all....informing someone they need to lose weight is what their job role is and sadly fat ppl get told it when they already know and are refused treatment because of it.

The fat nurse knows this but it is still policy to say this. Being fat has many reasons..

I'd be wondering why nurses are not given breaks to eat properly and have to grab snacks on the go...I'd be wondering why the NHS are expecting nurses to work double shifts without any time for meal prep...I'd be wondering why the NHS are not providing supervision and support to nurses who are using food as a coping strategy for the things in their lives and trauma they see daily...

I'd also think that you would prefer to go last when waiting for help.

Nurses are in teams generally. There may be some older arthritic ones or some younger inexperienced ones. Or middle aged ones with various health conditions. Or some people may not have the patience or personality to deal well with certain situations. As long as someone can still do most of the nursing tasks does it matter that they might be less able at some? Most nursing doesn't require running about. There's a shortage of nurses.

Nursing is an active job, so despite their obesity these nurses are probably still relatively fit and able to do the job.

Absolutely this! I was a normal BMI when I started training and then piled the weight on doing shifts, not getting proper breaks and then diving into the chocolate or biscuit tin in the break room because not having time to eat. I was also wiped out and often didn’t go to the gym. It really doesn’t help. Nurses come in all shapes and sizes I can’t see that there could be many that be classed as overweight enough not to be able to do their job properly. I’ve never come across it
likewise being skinny doesn’t always equal healthy.
I am a big advocate for living a healthy lifestyle but this article is a load of nonsense!

Well shiftwork is proven to screw up metabolism as does stress and cortisol levels (also increases nurses chances of cancer). So how about all nurses get full wages on part time day shift work and someone else can work shift and answer to the tough situations.

no more needs to be said, lol.
who still reads this senile shite?

Agree.

It's bizarre to be lectured by someone who is at least ten points further up the BMI scale and gets out of breath walking back with you to reception.

I can see why people think health professionals (all, not just nurses) should be practising what they preach and keeping a healthy weight. I know it's not easy with stress, shifts, etc but don't lecture me if you're way way fatter than me!

@Dymaxion
Can I ask what are your tasks within the community? Is it physical tasks or admin tasks?
I work as a community nurse, so its mainly physical tasks. I see the same amount of patients as everyone else, have to walk up the same flights of stairs/hills/farm tracks as everyone else, and my sickness level is lower than most of my colleagues

IME, the role of a community nurse is not physically demanding - they are mainly concerned with assessments, changing wound dressings, emotional support to people, reporting back to district nurses for any further action.

' walk up the same flights of stairs/hills/farm tracks as everyone else' I don't doubt you do this - I just find it difficult to reconcile the idea of an employer who advocates a certain 'healthy' weight / BMI to its users but not to its staff

There's a certain irony ...............

@SocksAndTheCity
It's the Telegraph - the only people more obnoxious than the rabid right wing muppets who write it are the ones who read it
.............. a really reasoned and well-thought out response 🙄

Never read the comments. They are full of crazy people.

Edit - or, apparently, the replies to this post

I think some people feel like this because alot of women I know have been gaslit my medical staff about how much our weight causes our symptoms and refuse to investigate due to outdated bmi standards. I was told to loose as much weight as possible to get pregnant completely ignoring the crippling abdominal pain I had been experiencing for years - eventually diagnosed with stage 4 endometriosis and effectively infertile. My Aunt, told she had acid reflux and to diet- actually had pancreatic cancer.
So I suppose the thought process is, if its good enough for them to dish out shouldn't they lead by example?

If myself or a loved one required hospital treatment I wouldn't care what shape the staff were that were administering treatment/care.
What a ridiculous suggestion.

I second this....from an overweight mental health nurse

I couldn't have cared less about the bmi of the nurses that looked after my son for four weeks in NICU after he was born 8 weeks prematurely.
He is 18 now and alive because of their expertise/care.
I did have a chuckle with a nurse weighing me before a hospital appointment, I pointed out I hated being weighed and she said not to worry as she was almost 18st at 5'6! She was a genuinely lovely woman and she didn't have to tell me what she weighed but like most nurses she wanted to make me feel as comfortable as possible. My appointment was to see a dietitian!

It’s discriminatory in my view

Unless someone's weight impacts their ability to do their job, it shouldn't be a factor.

Perhaps if nurses worked reasonable shift lengths, they'd have the energy and wakefulness to eat and sleep properly and then it would be less of an issue. Plus the known effects of working shift patterns in the first place.

How are they going to enforce it? Sack someone who started at a size 10 in their twenties but became a size 14 by their 50s? It's nonsense.

Believe me, no overweight person is oblivious. Do you think she’s blind/stupid? The nurse is probably cringing. Of course a fat person knows they’re fat. They have to give advice, it’s the nature of the job, but it doesn’t mean they’re oblivious. I do think some people consider fat people to be thick too. Unfortunately, TV has made the fat person the object of derision/fun. Oh, funny fat person, such a stereotype.

It's a contentious issue but we continually told that obesity costs the NHS a vast deal of money with the implicit suggestion we have a national duty to lose weight to protect the NHS. I think this attitude gets people's backs up and they look at overweight nurses and start to feel there is hypocrisy in the NhS messaging. Orient correct obviously but this perspective exists.

I think also there is a tendency for the middle class including medics to view obesity as the scourge of the feckless poor so there is a stigma that may make its way into the general view of patients. Sometimes I think 50 something well.educated healthy medics with considerable income pontificating about healthy life style can be grating.

Staffing on the ward I used to work on was three nurses plus one clinical support worker. Having even one nurse who was unable to do certain tasks would have an impact. I don’t work on the wards any more but am in a similar sized team now. One of my colleagues has various health conditions, including obesity. There are a few tasks she struggles with that usually fall to me. It’s starting to be expected that I will just do certain things because I’ll be quicker than she will. I often have to interrupt what I am doing to go and help her and it is really starting to have an impact on my ability to keep up with my own workload.

A maximum BMI is not the way to go. Too simplistic. But I do believe nurses should be physically capable of doing their jobs. It’s not fair to expect others to pick up the slack.

But, as you say, there is a shortage of nurses so there’s no guarantee we could replace her were she to move to another role that would suit her better. I’m not sure what the answer is.

The "ideas to fix the NHS" thread on here was basically the same thing, i.e. people's personal pet peeves, most of which would cost rather than save money.

In 2022 to 2023, 64.0% of adults aged 18 years and over in England were estimated to be overweight or living with obesity. Not sure why they are focussing on nurses being fat. I doubt that having lean and hungry nurses is going to inspire the other 64% of the population to stop eating far too many calories.

Like we have such a huge surplus of excellent nurses that we can pick and choose what they look like?!

This is just ludicrous! And hideous discriminatory fat shaming I am afraid. I guess the telegraph must be desperate to resort to this kind of journalism, and I do read it occasionally and will be rethinking my options.

When I started my training (pre-university nursing), there were height and weight limits!
You had to be a minimum of 5'2" and and appropriate weight for height (under or overweight)
This was for practical reasons - lifting for example (yes, I know that aids are available now, this was over 40 years ago) and based on the fact that no-one is going to take dietary and nutrition advice from an over/underweight professional.
Now, nobody gives a damn because "i can have a jab to take it away'

Maybe instead of attacking nurses bmi they should look at raising staffing levels so they have time for a proper break and provide healthy options to eat in hospitals.
Of all the issues in the NHS this can not be even in the top 50, article is bizarre