Hospitals challenged by obese patients

It does seem to be the one bit of diversity that's unacceptable, doesn't it?

I may think I'm obese because certain circumstances of my life have skewed my self-perception, but the fact is I don't even rate quite Rubenesque.

Let's face it ... by today's standards, Venus has a bit of a gut where her six-pack should be, there's no jutting hipbone on which to hang her gold chain, the breasts are a bit saggy and could use some perking up, her thighs are too rounded and her toes definitely need some work.

(Snipping the bone of that second toe so it falls perfectly in line for sandal wear and the open-toed mules women slap around the office in these days seems to be a rage of sort in Manhattan, according to my sister.)

I think this is largely due to the fact that women are not be seen as childbearing anymore. Sorta explains the vestigial (usually silicone) breasts slapped on bodies they strive to keep boyish.

How true! (I'm a physical terrorist as well, though currently working as a transcriptionist partly because I don't like lifting 300+-pound patients).

Right on! That's one big reason I stuck to outpatient over the years. Other than I enjoyed the skill level there more, it was much easier on my back! ;)

I remember a relatively young stroke patient we had on Rehab for awhile that we eventually had to send to a nursing home pending weight loss - it just wasn't possible to recruit enough of us to teach her transfers or lift her to standing in the parallel bars.

You bring up a good point. Depending where you are, there are staff cutbacks. And when someone requires maximum assist x 2, and there isn't someone to help....it almost always leads to potential injuries, either to the one doing the transfering, or the patient. And in that case, could lead to liability issues.

I've known too many nurses hurt seriously even when they were doing their best to lift carefully.

Yep. PT's too. Knew one who herniated her disc in her back when an overweight patient unexpectedly went down on her.

UVa in the early 80s had a lifting team of sorts. It was kind of scary to watch them, however - if we had someone really critical we tried to have someone from our department present to make sure the transfer went okay. They always did manage to get the patient up, however ;-).

I really, really wished something like that would go national. I mentioned earlier that it would take, perhaps hiring a local high school student (perhaps athlete?) (or two), train them in proper lifting mechanics, and let them assist in all patient transfers when needed. It could be a very cost effective, part time thing for them to earn extra $$, learn about medical care, and save the hospital tens of thousands (if not more) a year in workers comp bills, not to mention a lot of grateful nurses necks, backs and knees!

Right on! That's one big reason I stuck to outpatient over the years. Other than I enjoyed the skill level there more, it was much easier on my back! ;)

I hear you - did outpatient for the last few years myself prior to switching to transcription. Our last move was right at the peak of the bad job market for PTs. I could have driven to Austin from Fort Hood every day, but I decided against it and discovered transcription. I've enjoyed it so much (even typing 8 hours is easier on the wrists than manual therapy) that I stayed with it when we moved back to Hawaii a year ago. I love telling people here I work in North Carolina.

I mentioned earlier that it would take, perhaps hiring a local high school student (perhaps athlete?) (or two), train them in proper lifting mechanics, and let them assist in all patient transfers when needed.

The department at UVa was called "subsidiary nursing." They usually had 4-6 very large guys at a time sitting in the office "on call." They weren't very quick at responding, which could wreak havoc with a schedule if you were on a tight one, but they really did have some abilities even the best body mechanics and transfer techniques in the world can't fully substitute for.

I do remember a couple of very large items that were kept in storage for when we had a morbidly obese patient - one chair that literally looked more like a throne than anything else. Someone had built it in what appeared to have been Jefferson's era, but it did the trick - we had one guy over 300 pounds who had a tractor run over his pelvis. Had an external fixator that looked more like the wildest tinker toy construction you've ever seen - now that was a challenge to get him out of bed. I enjoyed UVa a lot - very challenging work and we were really part of the team in every respect of the word.

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