These were my 3 major food groups while I worked as a bedside nurse. Without one of these items, I was lost. 12-hour shifts create routines that usually prove addictive. Without routine, your shift goes to shit quick, so you establish a system to ensure you make it through your shift to the best of your abilities.
I used to eat the worst of the worst, night after night and not gain weight. This is probably because I walked 10 miles a shift. Good shoes are important along with compression socks!!
Now, at 40+ years of age, if I even think about a cookie, my ass gets bigger. I promise. I understand the physiological need for carbs when your brain is running 90 to nothing and people’s lives are in your hands. They frown upon you using cocaine to get through your shift nowadays. But I understand why I have read about nurses using drugs at work. I do. I also understand why there is a peer assistance program for most state’s BONs. It’s just so messed up if you think about it.
The hospital I worked went smoke-free at some point and I thought I would die. But we went across the street and stood on the corner during breaks to smoke, so I survived. I always thought it was funny that they didn’t make nurse’s stations caffeine or sugar-free. If you saw all the things nurses eat and drink to get through a shift, you would wonder why all nurses don’t weigh 300 pounds, have ESRD 2nd diabetes, or drop dead at least once a week while working at the computer. These things probably do happen but later, after they move to administration.
Then there are the healthy eating nurses who have a salad they brought from home with a homemade vinaigrette on the side. Nobody likes them. They have trouble finding a work buddy unless there is more than one health nut on your unit. All the carb addicted nurses go on diets from time to time, but it goes to shit when they have a bad shift. It’s the equivalent of calling an ex when you’ve been drinking. It’s short and not really worth the effort.
I have always found it amazing that nurses work in healthcare, care for the sick who usually got there by not eating a healthy diet but themselves eat the worst diet. There might be some “healthy alternatives” in the snack machines and cafeteria, but we all know that isn’t what people get! And if they do, they still binge when they are stressed or pissed off. It won’t surprise me if someday hospitals require nurses to have an appropriate BMI, BP and A1C.
