Long Shifts May Raise Some Nurses' Odds for Obesity

I do think you have to take control of your life. I have learned to say no more to extra days and hours when others are absent. My stress level was too high. Our 12s are mostly on our feet, so we are burning lots of calories. Good luck finding time to eat at work!

a 12 hour shift is hard on the body, especially 3 in 1 week- you leave work, shower, eat, sleep, repeat...there are no fruit nor oatmeal machines at work, but there are plenty of junk food machines, pizzas in the break room, cakes, cookies and celebrations. It's very easy to put on the pounds if you aren't careful, but not all nurses are overweight. Some of us work very hard to take care of our bodies because we see first hand the effects of obesity on our overall health. Also, a nurse needs to be an example of health, not a before picture.

Time to eat a meal in peace, without trying to beat the buzzer (call light), is the number one problem on my floor; It's especially problematic when you work straight nights. You are speed-eating, trying to make sure you get to eat and that interferes with you're ability to recognize when you're full. You just want to finish your meal before you have to touch an orifice, wound, secretion, excretion, etc.

Nursing is a demanding job, one in which you will frequently deny yourself a lunch break in the interest of staffing a short unit or staying with a dying patient. The stakes are high, the stress level is overwhelming and the mention of breaks is almost done so in a joking way, as it rarely happens in this profession. The stress and lack of time to eat opens the door for comfort foods, which are way to often present at the nurses station and easily accessible. Sadly this environment-which many nurses work in-is the reason many are overweight.

Not just nurses. Try working overnight in a hospital, be you a doctor, nurse, or tech after you've seen all your patients and done all your paperwork. Then you have to wait until the next medication administration time and that can be hours and you're just sitting around. It's easy to run down to cafe and get cheap food or to run to the 24 hour McDonalds. Hopsitals give their employees very cheap food, or at least mine does.

I love the 12 hour shifts and wouldn't have it any other way! Shorter shifts fragment care. 12 hr shifts are fine if you get adequate rest in between, I have many fellow nurses that still try to do normal daily duties after their shifts and they are always tired, just save that for your days off and catch up then. It is up to the individual nurse to make time for exercise and eating a balanced diet...bring in veggies instead of doughnuts for cripes sake! Grazing on fruits and veggies all day instead of eating a "meal" on a break is healthier for all of us anyway! We need only practice what we preach!

I'm an RN with a (mainly) desk job. I have to remember to get up and move around. I'm also a bit older (56) and yes, too heavy. Time to eat? forget it! Right now I'm eating a bag of gummy bears, all I will get for this 12 hour shift. I need some healthy fast ideas for at work snacking. If you are what you eat. I'm cheap, fast and easy.

I worked 12's in an ER until I turned forty. Then I got a job in heart cath lab. 8 hr day shift with plenty of time for meals. I gained 10 lbs.

I was nurse for 20 years...Do Not Become A Nurse......total care of patient,,maybe 1 cna on floor with you...lifting,,pushing,,,pulling,,,now have had 2 rotator cuff repairs..rupture disc,,,
back pain 24/7.....cannot lift anything...if i would have known....never would i become a nurse.

it is well known that when stress level is high, cortisol levels are also high, leading to unhealthy habits, such as eating processed junk foods on the run....nursing has its down sides - night shift work is even worse....

I completely agree with all the RNs suggesting to NOT go into nursing.What a national joke when discussing breaks!! There is an inability to provide "real" breaks.With all the fed and state regulations, Drs rounds & orders, medication & prns plus tons of documentation, answering phones & processing all the paperwork with no unit secretary, dealing with families questions/drama & complaints plus running the unit.......it is an impossible job. This is not including working short and training nursing students, residents and new staff. NO WONDER RNs have so many medical and obesity issues. We eat what we can when we can and usually the closest thing at hand is junk food. The public wonder whats wrong with medical care in hospitals and clinics; all one has to do is look at all the paper work,insurance filing, staffing issues, lack of support from the admin and realize the whole system needs to be revamped. We can no longer provide excellent medical care under the traditional scope of present expectations. What will this nation do when the Baby Boomers are in full need of medical care? A terribly frustrating cycle...................America needs to wake up and realize we need to create a new system of care by people involved in the medical profession; not by legislators, pharmacological or insurance companies. We can no longer look at the 1%

common all ...thumbs up for the fat nurse ...trying to mask by chewing a pen and dryed up hamburger particles stuck to the corners of here mouth ...

THE ATTRACTIVE ONES

I'd vote for eating too much and doing too little...the american way

It looks like the only ones commenting are nurses. Too bad.

Maybe I'm in the abnormal group of folks and I totally understand if you want to work those long shift but as a patient I would feel more comfortable knowing my healthcare staff were 'bright eyed and bushy tailed' instead of 'bleary eyed and draggin #$%$. I've long thought having medical personnel work demanding long hours was putting patients at risk. 4-5 day work week with max. of 10hrs/day. Same goes for all those interns. I want my healthcare person to be mentally alert and coherent even if I'm not. The only reason to work those long hours would be at wartime or a catastrophe.

i'm not overweight but i surely suffer from the sleep lack involved in 12 hour night shift work. it isn't normal. and while i watch many nurses eat donuts at 7 am (before bed), i think what this article doesn't talk about is how lack of sleep changes hormonal production so that blood sugar isn't as easily regulated. we're learning more and more about this but some of us feel this and don't even need a research study to verify. this causes a tendency to crave sweets, etc. i was a nutritionist for 10 years before i was a nurse......
and by the way, NURSING SUCKS. any idiot who thinks this is a great career change REALLY needs to rethink their life priorities.

Ummmm were they perhaps obese before they became nurses? Try not eating as much and exercising more....duh.

All the data on 12 hour shifts show this length of time on duty is bad for nurses and bad for our patients. So why do hospitals do it? When I was charge on a busy med surg unit, it was hard to get much done the last four hours of the shift. My nurses began to get the "thousand yard stare." For older nurses? Totally out of gas by hour nine.

That, and the KFC & cookies at the nurses' stations...