Overweight people in pharmacy

[Vancodoser]

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Hi everyone! Longtime viewer of threads/ first time poster

Before any of you write this off as potentially purposefully inciting hateful responses ( I believe the proper internet term is "trolling" [?] )
I just want to say this is a very serious topic and one that is of great concern to me and some of my future colleagues.

What is your opinion on pharmacists (or other HCP's) who are overweight? I find that many of the pharmacists I work with are overweight, nay, OBESE... and they happen to blame their health problem on working long hours and just not being motivated to exercise or eat right.

I find this disturbing for 2 reasons:
1) We as health care professionals OWE it to our patients to set an example. This comes across in our appearance, first and foremost. I mean, think about it, how much credibility are you going to have if you are counseling the Type II diabetic on their metformin use and potential lifestyle changes they must undergo if you yourself can barely stand on your own two feet for more than half a millisecond?

2) I am going to be a pharmacist in a couple months ( pending upon whether I pass boards,which seeing there is a 99% pass rate at our school, shouldn't be a problem). I am concerned that I am going to turn into a lardass myself. In addition, I know I will soon be promoted to pharmacy manager (it'll only be a matter of time 🙂 and I really feel like I will have to discriminate when I hire technicians. Will an overweight technician be as efficient as a lean one? Will I have to worry about productivity and output? Will my customers/patients be put off by my aesthetically UNpleasing technicians and co workers? Will I lose potential customers because of this?

Please respond to this right away. Please let me know I am not alone in my concern. Please tell me that those pharmacists only got that way because they're fat and lazy and normal people like myself won't let myself go like that.

Thanks in advance for your replies.

 

[eelo]

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[twester]

I didn't read all of the troll's post. It's a topic of some personal relevance, however.

How many of us in this forum: Use tobacco products? Drink too much? Use illicit drugs? Eat fast food every day of the week with nary a vegetable in the area? Have BMIs of more than 25? Have dyslipidemia? HTN? LOL this isn't a survey.

How many of us are put into positions of counseling patients on the very issues that we deal with personally? I'll raise my hand. I decided last summer that my hypocrisy concerning tobacco was agregious enough that I had to stop. I'll soon be a sixth-month non-smoker. I'm entering the frame of mind to consider that my weight needs to be closer to healthy and I've started working on that.

My point is that, although none of us can be perfect, we also can not counsel patients on health issues if we aren't working on our own. I also think that my health and lifestyle issues help to make me more sensitive to those of my patients. When I tell a patient that his Big Mac habit is harming him, I can empathize and tell him how I overcame my own. I'm an expert at smoking cessation and that proves valuable in the clinical setting.

Anyway, I think the thread deserves to live without its originator.

 

[bananaface]

I respectfully disagree. We don't have to be perfect ourselves to be able to talk to patients about things they can do to improve their health. Someone can suck at remembering to take their daily multivitamin and not be a hypocrite when they offer a patient tips on how to remember their own daily regimen. I am overweight and eat crap that I shouldn't, but if I have a patient who wants to talk about a low cholesterol diet, I can do that. They aren't trying to use me as a measuring stick for "normal" or judge my food choices; they are trying to get information that they can use to make decisions that affect their own health.

Congrats on the quit. 🙂

 

[islander01]

Does an obese pharmacist make you not want to ask him/her for advice? If he/she is knowledgeable, I do not think we should make this bias. We could use it as an example (I guess?) to prevent ourselves from falling into the situation.

 

[dgroulx]

I mean, think about it, how much credibility are you going to have if you are counseling the Type II diabetic on their metformin use and potential lifestyle changes they must undergo if you yourself can barely stand on your own two feet for more than half a millisecond?

I am overweight and just pulled a double shift at Walgreens yesterday. I have to say that my feet didn't hurt at all. 😛

I counsel patients and make product recommendations all the time. They appreciate my empathy and that I am concerned about their health. You have to connect with your patients and be a "people person". I don't think you will do a good job if you are judgmental about a person's outer appearance.

 

[jspwinter]

Appearance shouldn't matter as long as they're able to effectively do their jobs. Good thing the op got banned. Their's really no point to threads like these.

 

[jawnly211]

funny.........

i've never seen a personal trainer with a BMI > 30

 

[twester]

I guess it's just my approach to my own issues. I believe "physician, heal thyself" also applies to pharmacists. It's hard for me to justify pointing out the health foibles of others if I'm not looking at my own as well. Again, I'm never going to be perfect in terms of managing my own health issues, but at least I'm aware of what they are as it sounds most of us are.

I'm not talking about appearance. It's not possible to judge a person's state of health by appearance alone. I guess what I'm talking about are the twists and turns of the practitioner's mind rather than any kind of social ostracization. I have a physician/friend who carries some extra weight and we commiserate about our issues on occasion, but that doesn't mean that I dismiss her advice just because she's not a size 0. I would hope my patient's won't dismiss mine either.

 

[OKgirl]

funny.........

i've never seen a personal trainer with a BMI > 30

Physical trainers work at a gym, they get free membership, and they get to work out when they aren't training. People who work at tanning salons are tan. A lot of medical professionals work long hard hours and don't have the time/energy to go work out after they get off. People can only manage to do so many things.

I do believe that some people have a natural tendency to be heavier. According to my BMI, I could stand to loose some weight, but no matter how much I work out and eat healthy, it is pretty much impossible to loose weight. I'm not willing to become anorexic just so my BMI can be perfect. I don't find it accuate to judge someone's health by their BMI.

People say that you need to practice what you preach, but you never know what that HCP has already tried. For all we know their weight could be genetic or caused by an extreme health problem.