Fat nurses

Working in the nursing profession in the United States I think what you are seeing may be skewed. A lot of nurses smoke, I would say about 2% at our hospital. Most of the smokers who are employees in other departments look alot like nurses. As far as weight is concerned, that is another issue. 90% of the nurses I work with are in great shape, the other 10 are working on it. We tend to eat and run. I measured the amount of distance that I walk in one week at work, it came out to 88.5 kilometers. So we do chew up a lot of calories. We also take in calories as well. The stresses at our work, the critical enviroment where there is a lot of pain and death do take its toll. But we all as nurses take our health to heart. We are thankful that we are as healthy as we are when we see someone who is younger or in better health dying of disease or injury. So give us a break, we are just your average person is a high stress job that seems to thankless and under a lot of scrutiny. Sure we have our sandbaggers, but they dont stick around long. We see to that. I do have to tell you guys and gals one thing. No one dies alone, we hold their hands and tallk to them. I also believe in a higher power, I see it in action all the time. I believe in the human spirit. We also see the darker side of human life and family dynamics as well. Death is a two edged sword. Sometimes it is a happy event sometimes its tragic. Thanks for letting me ramble.

 

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People in the middle, like nurses, tend to smoke more than people on the top (doctors) or the bottom (janitors).

Stress.

 

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Could be as simple as all the chocolates they get from the patients - this was the case in an Oncology department I spent some time at.

Nicola

 

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they need to give me that chocolate than...

 

High stress, heavy responsibility, low prestige.
Just be glad they didn't turn to drugs or violence.

 

It wasn't just one occasion. By the way, do you live in Seattle?

I also agree with Draqon that health care professionals tend to be smokers more often than the average population...

 

It doesn't matter that it was more than one occasion, mine was on several occasions, too. But both mine and yours were always in the same general areas.

No, I've been to Seattle but never lived there.

As to that last thing, you'd have to show me some actual sources before I could accept that.

 

I assume it never occured to you, that one reason why I started this thread was to bring out other people's observations on the matter. So we have a negative result with your data and a positive one with Draqon's.

 

Yes well people tend to ignore their own unhealthy practices and highlight those of others...just saying.:shrug:

 

Sure, that occured to me - right at the first. But my point is that with nothing more than my and draqons observations to go with, you still really have nothing.

And you still haven't provided the numbers I asked for. Until then, your other thought remains moot because it hasn't been supported by anything beyond your thinking that it might be true.

 

Well, I plan to stand in front of the hospital tomorrow between 7 and 9 am, with a pen and paper, and duly note the number of all and fat nurses. Stay tuned....

 

Statistics spoil everything.
The Iraq war was probably started by some beancounter with a calculator.
I can tell you all straight away why nurses are so fat.
They don't feed the patients and then eat all their food.

 

What is that supposed to mean? If anywhere near that many people said that most of the nurses that they have seen smoke and are overweight that would be pretty good data. You don't need a random sample when when your sample size is the entire population. I think if several people from different places said that they had observed the same thing. It may not be the most reliable evidence, but it wouldn't be meaningless either. I don't have any evidence for fat nurses because although I have seen some they seem to be equally distributed throughout. The smoking thing however... It almost seems like in order to be considered a doctor of merit you must smoke. I've interned in quite a few hospitals in my area so I think that I can safely say that a large number of nurses and doctors smoke in the area that I live in. However no one has done a scientific study so this is just what I have observed.

 

It's neither random, nor a sample, nor the the entire population of what's being studied- it's a sample of observers, not nurses.

The nature of the observations (due to the observer), definitionally, makes it such that any observed nurse is also a smoker.

You do understand that you're more likely to see smokers outside smoking than non-smokers outside smoking, yes?

 

Yes, but I worked inside the hospitals. The people that smoked smelled like smoke and I would watch them walk outside and smoke from my desk. So the shift that was working at the same time I was had a large number of smokers, both nurse and doctor. I think its gross, since they are working with the sick and they come in smelling like smoke, it makes me gag, but I was just an intern so no one cares about what I think. I wouldn't ban smoking though okay I'm rambling now.

 

It is pretty much more of a regional phenomenon. The theory being that the doctors\smokers come from the general population but i think that by and large doctors smoke less than general population. The fact is that generally lower income derive quick and simple pleasure much more readily than their more affluent counterparts. And what choice do they have?

 

Opinion from a nurse on a Nurse forum:

"most third shift nursing home nurses do carry around alittle bit of excess weight. maybe it's because we either have bring our own or eat out of the machines since the kitchen closes at 7 pm and they roll up the streets at midnight."

http://allnurses.com/forums/f8/overweight-nurses-35749-3.html

Another one:

"I never felt any discrimination in my workplace, because 8 of the 10 people in my immediate area were also very overweight. If anything, they enabled my weight gain... "

Hm, this one supports my 3 out of 4 ratio....but could be a regional thing.

 

is it me, or has Cutsie had a wide range of jobs in her life?

 

it's been awhile, but i've heard statistics (heresay) that nurses have the highest rate of eating disorders and drug abuse/addiction, and that dentists have the highest suicide rates of any other professions.

 

Fat nurses? Yeah; and what happened to the little hats and white miniskirts and the awkward bending over and surreptitious eyelash batting?