This month I was read­ing ONS Con­nect and saw the arti­cle “New Research Pro­vides Insight Into the Link Between Obe­sity and Can­cer” by Deb­o­rah McBride. It made me think about what we nurses tell our patients about can­cer risk fac­tors. Unfor­tu­nately research shows that nurses may be uncom­fort­able with this topic and we have high rates of obe­sity among nurses.

Do we need to be mod­els for our patients? I think we do. My patients have told me that they watch us. I know they watch every­thing we do, from our hand­wash­ing habits to how we inter­act with each other and physicians.

With one-​​third of the U.S. adult pop­u­la­tion over­weight or obese and the eco­nomic and health con­se­quences that fol­low, we can’t afford to ignore it.

When patients see us and what we look like, it sends a mes­sage. So how cred­i­ble are we when we are exem­pli­fy­ing the very behav­ior that we are advis­ing against?

Shift work, and the way we work as nurses, with few breaks and long hours, can lead us to unhealthy weight gain. Nurses’ sta­tions are noto­ri­ous for hav­ing bad food like candy and choco­late around. Hos­pi­tal cafe­te­rias have fried foods and other unhealthy choices, even if they have salad bars and health­ier options.

Hav­ing a lim­ited amount of time for lunch makes it hard to crunch on a salad; it’s eas­ier to gulp soft foods like ham­burg­ers when you’re short on time. Twelve-​​hour shifts leave no time or energy for exer­cise on work days. Most peo­ple will choose sleep and food when exhausted, not to men­tion their oblig­a­tions at home.

Nurse can take con­trol of their habits. What are some things we can do for our­selves? Plan­ning meals and bring­ing healthy foods and healthy por­tions to work can help. Pri­or­i­tiz­ing time to exer­cise on days off, and advo­cat­ing for health­ier work sched­ules if necessary.

Nurses are great advo­cates for patients, but we are not very good at advo­cat­ing for our­selves. At the same time, nurs­ing is one of the most trusted pro­fes­sions. I think peo­ple will lis­ten to us. We have the oppor­tu­nity now, with health­care reform, to reform the way we work, and to set a healthy exam­ple for patients, not only for reduc­ing can­cer risk, but in trans­form­ing the way peo­ple think about work, food, exer­cise, and self-​​care.

What can we lose? Adher­ence to old par­a­digms and work­ing con­di­tions that con­tribute to burnout and poor health. What can we gain? Reduc­ing our own risks of can­cer, feel­ing bet­ter, hav­ing more energy, and being hap­pier and more pro­duc­tive at work.

Think about the changes we could make if we lead the way.