Obesity and its Effects on the Individual - Essay Example

Health Sciences and Medicine Obesity and its Effects on the Individual and the Healthcare Population According to Dunn ), obesity is on the rise within America particularly because two-thirds of the US population is overweight, with approximately 50% being classified as obese. As a nurse who takes part in bedside attention among other responsibilities, I routinely witness the devastating effects of obesity firsthand, and not just among the obese individual(s) themselves, but also among the hospital staff.

This happens even when nurses and ancillary staff are customarily required to move about in their rooms and to gurney patients during transportation to other departments with little or no regard for their own safety. It is important for us to get hold off this epidemic, as it is ruining the lives of the obese and those around them. This supposition is majorly because obesity brings about a plethora of problems for the patient including and not limited to high blood pressure, which can lead to coronary heart disease and stroke, type 2 diabetes, joint problems, and self-esteem issues (Lee et al, 2012).

In like manner, it has been established that obesity increases the risk of its patients to conditions such as gallbladder disease, various cancers such as breast, kidney, liver and that of the colon, as well as frequent body pain, which comes with trouble in physical functioning. As for the nursing staff that often takes care of the obese population, evidence has pointed towards the fact that we struggle with injuries and negative attitude towards the obese population. Having investigated student and registered nurses, Poon & Tarrant (2009) established that both set of nurses felt that obese people exhibit fondness towards food, and have routinely been at fault for poor food choices.

As such, they concluded that obese people could easily lose weight if they changed their eating habits, for the body can be its own doctor when subjected to the ideal foods and exercises. Syllabus Three things that interest me about the syllabus are majorly the discussion boards, learning how to pull my thoughts together, as well as combining them in order to make sense. The discussion boards are of particular interest because they help me challenge my thought process. Furthermore, the other two are of much interest because I tend to have a lot of good ideas but quite often, I tend to find difficulty in finding the appropriate way of going about them.

As such, I believe undertaking this class will enable me make sense of my ideas easily. On the other hand, the three things that I am not so eager to tackle are research, the APA format, and reflection. The lack of enthusiasm towards both the APA format and research may exist partly because I have not done much in those areas over the past. On the other hand, I have never been comfortable with reflection, and that explains the disinclination. References Dunn, D. (2015). Addressing the Problem of Obesity.

AORN Journal, 102(2), 111-115. Doi:http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.aorn.2015.06.011. Lee, S. & Calamaro, C. (2012). Bariatric Nursing and Surgical Patient Care, 7.3: 127-131. Poon, M. & Tarrant, M. (2009). Obesity: Attitudes of Undergraduate Student Nurses and Registered Nurses. Journal of Clinical Nursing, 18:2355-2365.