There is something I have noticed lately at the hospital. Most of the nurses (regardless of gender) are heavy. Most of the doctors (regardless of gender) seem to be fit. The non-medical office staff are overweight, while the volunteers seem the thinnest of all. I do not mean to sound judgmental; it's just something I have noticed. And I tend to be pretty unobservant, so when I say "most" I mean more than ninety percent.
Although anecdotal evidence from a single hospital in one town is not great evidence, I wonder if this tends to be true at other hospitals. If so, what would that say? Is the work of a nurse more stressful than a doctor? Or does this reflect something about the attitudes or temperament of people in the two jobs?
I can understand the office workers, on a whole, being more heavy than the volunteers. The volunteers are usually running from place to place the entire time they are working. The office workers, as you would expect, are behind a desk.
But the doctor-nurse dichotomy does not make sense to me. Working in a health care environment and not taking care of yourself seems counter intuitive. Besides the fact that it seems impossible considering how physical the job of a nurse is compared to a doctor, I wonder about the psychological aspect. Whether it is seeing the result of bad decisions made over a lifetime or seeing accidents that happen in a split second, shouldn't that make you take life less for granted? Or does it just numb a person after a while?
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2 comments:
It's probably b/c the doctors take off so much to go play golf! :o)
I have questioned the health of health care workers too...especially when you see them outside smoking...... hhhmmmm.....
We've thought about the weight/health issue in relationship to SES and our ideas can be applied here.
People in higher income brackets can naturally afford to make better food choices. (Side note about coupons: have you noticed that so many of the coupons available are for processed foods? We save very little with coupons because of Lucy's allergies.) If one afford to buy fresh, organic foods, there are healthier options. More time helps too, not that this would necessarily apply to doctors. Depending on the doctor's lifestyle, they may have help with children or in the house. If I had more time, I could take more care in what I choose to make.
The second element also has to do with money. With more income, one can join a gym or take other exercise classes. Pilates and yoga classes can be quite expensive, and there are other physical activities, like skiing that are not cheap.
Obviously, doctors don't have more time, but I do think having more disposable income helps matters. All of this observations are by no means across the board, so that's my disclaimer. :)
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