Nurse shifts linked to abnormal eating habits

Readers' comments (19)

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  Margery Mary Hawkins | 9-Feb-2010 2:11 pm

  I could have told them that in 1956-1959 when I was training :-))))

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• Jacqueline de Laporte | 9-Feb-2010 2:33 pm

  Another example of the blindingly obvious even with such a small unscientific and unrepresentative number of nurses.
  
  We used to have a 'night chef' when I was a student in the late sixties. Paddies' Apple pies were famous. We were all well fed with wholesome hot food, (provided free to staff whilst on duty). Sadly he was replaced with a vending machine when 'pay as you eat' was introduced.

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• Anonymous | 9-Feb-2010 7:03 pm

  There no need to target health promotion at nurses. Improving working lives for staff should be part of all organisation. Staff been well look after in them days were reasons people flocked into nursing. Employers do not care if you eat this days look at the meager salary not to talk of eating well when you hadly get breaks or proper staff room. Politics should be part of nursing curriculum if i have my way.

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• Anonymous | 9-Feb-2010 7:34 pm

  My concern is that if the grammer of the person above is any marker of the quality of the profession, we are all in trouble!!
  
  Howver I do agre it is imperative all nurses all politically astute and active. Only then will we make life better for ourselves.

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• Beth Young | 9-Feb-2010 9:59 pm

  I got to 9 and a half stone from 11 stones when i did 12 hour shifts on a busy admissions ward! I then lost my appetite when I was able to eat, thought this weight must be good and with encouragement from others proceeded to try to lose more. Don't work there anymore luckily!

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• Anonymous | 9-Feb-2010 10:21 pm

  Hello!!! How many Nurses like me, have gotten to around 03:00 and felt nauseous or thrown up, simply because your body clock has gone awol. It may be a part of the job, but does that make it right? No, healthy feeding of staff is a priority if Trust's want to maintain staff retention!

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• Anonymous | 9-Feb-2010 11:07 pm

  Thank you NHS! I've been battling with my weight problem for years but since starting my training in September 2008, I've dropped from a size 24 to a size 18, and counting! I can barely afford to eat on my pittance of a bursary, once I've paid out half of it on rent and the other half on travel... and then, fitting meals in round shift working, when breakfast is at 5.30am, lunch at 10.30am, and evening meal not until 7pm... or worse, on a late, only 2 meals in a day... the second of which is generally a bottle of Lucozade and a Mars bar...
  
  In fact, I'm thinking of asking Lucozade to sponsor the rest of my training, as I'm drinking so much of it just to keep going...

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• Anonymous | 10-Feb-2010 0:09 am

  In the 12 yrs I have been in nursing my weight has risen by 6 stone (diagnosed hypothyroid 1993).
  I get a half hour unpaid break (if I am lucky) on a 8 and half hour shift (plus 2 and half hours travel) my lunch is generally a sandwich/yogurt/fruit
  I have cereal/porridge and slice of toast for breakfast at 6am lunch at 1pm and dinner (cooked meal) at 7-7.30 when I get in, don't snack on sweets at work and rarely at home, yet I know somewhere I am consuming too many calories.
  I try to eat healthy foods but sadly by evening I am so hungry I tend to eat larger than normal portions and am so mentally and physically tired I have to force myself to do any exercise, I am still mordidly obese and have struggled for yesrs to just stop weight going on never mind get it off and have now decided the only way forward is surgery to reduce my ability to eat large portions.
  I think workplace stress plays a big part in how we choose our food and how our body metabolises it.
  Guess probably best answer is a different occupation!

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• Anonymous | 10-Feb-2010 12:49 pm

  Qualified summer 2009, first job Sept 2009 at 9stone. Weight now 8st. 7lbs and still dropping. Stress, lack of time and appetite I feel are responsible. The bizarre mix of day/night shift patterns and day shifts that should be 12hours often end up being 15! Eating at 10 o'clock at night after shift, then going to bed to be back up at 0600 cannot be good for anyone, and seemingly not me. Not sure how long my body is going to take this.

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• Mr Al | 10-Feb-2010 6:41 pm

  This comment is brilliant. If you're going to criticise people's grammar at least check your spelling!:
  
  My concern is that if the grammer of the person above is any marker of the quality of the profession, we are all in trouble!!
  
  Howver I do agre it is imperative all nurses all politically astute and active. Only then will we make life better for ourselves.

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• Anonymous | 11-Feb-2010 1:23 pm

  I am just embarking upon my nursing training, and have recently completed my first placement. I was quite shocked to discover the lack of care for the staff which was prevalent within the trust, and the lack of access to proper breaks or decent food/facilities when one could get a break was frustrating at best. Many wards had signs up saying that it was the individual nurses responsibility to take their break within the allotted time -or lose it.; however, the duty of care must surely mean that sometimes it is not possible to take your break at a given time, and then you've lost the right?- how strange then that nurses are unable to eat properly.............

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• Anonymous | 12-Feb-2010 11:08 am

  I am a student nurse who lost 2 dress sizes on a 6 week placement - and I eat like a horse (only healthy stuff). Apart from medical exceptions, I really can't see how any nurse can be overweight - you are doing a very physical job! The only overweight person on the ward was a lazy HCA. Everyone else was buzzing about. On a long shift it would be 8 hours before nurses got their lunch. I made sure I had a good breakfast every morning otherwise I would have passed out, and I was still starving by lunchtime. It's so true with the tiny bursary - you cannot afford to eat as well as you need to as it covers accommodation and travel and bills only.

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• mustbemethen | 12-Feb-2010 11:13 am

  As already metioned many years ago we were looked after, but then the pay was a pittance. The breaks were an hour for lunch or dinner plus a breakfast, an afternoon tea and coffee break. We worked 42/40 hours then. The all day and night breakfast was available for shift patterns. However, there was a sister's and a separate doctor's dining area with waitress service. Minions had to queue! They were the old days, long gone and possibly for the better, except the time factor of meal breaks. Today the notion of being able to walk to the canteen eat and drink in half an hour is frankly ludicrous. I come off duty regularly dehydrated because of lack of time and facilities to be able to drink a full cup of coffee or even to get to a tap for water, let alone the designated half hour break! Yes I do have very abnormal eating habits due to this. But the job is still the job I love and I would not change it for an office envoironment having sampled that also!

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• Anonymous | 12-Feb-2010 12:25 pm

  Talk about blindingly obvious research....and people get paid to do that.

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• Anonymous | 12-Feb-2010 3:23 pm

  Exactly! How much thought did that one take?! Margery Mary Hamwkins nicely succint, pithy yet poignant post summed it up well!!!

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• Anonymous | 14-Feb-2010 5:17 pm

  I have been qualified for 10 years and have noticed a definate decline in the catering services provided by NHS hospitals in what should be their role in keeping staff fed and watered with decent, free or subsidised meals and the TIME to eat in a comfortable atmosphere not shared by visitors and relatives.

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• Anonymous | 14-Feb-2010 6:17 pm

  Hospital canteen food is very exorbitantly expensive and sometimes the time taken to queue up to be served and again to pay for the meal ; 15 minutes of 30 minutes break is already lost. The only thing I can afford is subsidized chips for 97p which is full of unhealty fat!! Another problem is during the summer; most nurses have to bring their own water to rehydrate themselves whilst managers have a water cooler in their office. Many nurses have been told not to bring bottled water or not to drink (water) on the ward due to infection control. Lot of time one end up giving up one's break to meet up with the workload especially when someone is off sick and not being replaced.

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• Anonymous | 16-Feb-2010 7:34 pm

  This article above is totally uninformative. Please could we have a reference to this research in order to read what the study is about exactly and what the conclusions are.
  
  I also suggest that comments to articles in the Nursing Times.Net are written clearly and concisely, have some relevance to the above mentioned article. The slapdash style used by some of the readers makes them difficult to read and does not inspire much confidence in nursing professionals as it reflects on their attitude.

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• Anonymous | 18-Feb-2010 8:56 pm

  I have put on 2 stone in 18 months since ive been on my current ward just beause i only have time to eat rubbish, the canteen only served semi warm chips by the time i get their (usually 3pm) then i stuff down a choc bar as its quick and gives me a sugar kick, i take offence to anyone who doesnt believe nurses shout struggle with their weight, doing 14 hour days- including travelling, isnt healthy for anyone

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