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Nursing You resource created to help overweight and obese nurses tackle weight issues

A new app has launched with the aim of helping nurses to maintain the same healthy lifestyle as the one they want for their patients.
Nursing You interactive tool

A new interactive resource has launched with the aim of helping nurses to maintain the same healthy lifestyle as the one they want for their patients.


The Nursing You app aims to help overweight nurses make lifestyle changes

Nursing You is a free-to-download PDF which offers a step-by-step guide on how to make up to five lifestyle changes and decide at which time of the working day to make them.

Multiple choice

Users are asked a short series of multiple choice questions on subjects such as eating breakfast and choice of snacks. The resource suggests a possible change of routine which the nurse can either accept or reject.

Examples include:

  • Before, during and after work, how do I make decisions about what to eat and drink?
  • What triggers (situations, feelings or experiences) at work lead me to make unhealthy eating choices?
  • Are there healthier alternatives, and how do I make them part of my already packed routine?

Collaborative tool

The Healthy Weight Initiative for Nurses (WIN), a collaboration between several organisations including the RCN and London South Bank University, created the tool after consulting with a group of nurses about their own struggles with obesity.

According to its statistics from 2016, 25% of nurses were obese compared with 16% of other healthcare professionals.

As well as making suggestions, Nursing You tracks a person’s progress towards their chosen goal and allows them to make notes on how they feel they are doing.

WIN is inviting nurses to begin using the resource and provide it with regular feedback on their experience, in order to help tweak the design for future users.

Changing habits

Nursing associate at the organisation C3 Collaborating for Health – also a WIN member – Michaela Nuttall said: ‘Between caring for patients and juggling management it’s no surprise that we nurses have no time to look after our own health.

‘And it can be hard to change our habits when we’re stuck in a mad dash routine. But, we want to feel good and be able to do our jobs.

‘While Nursing You was developed with nurses who are obese to particularly help themselves and other nurses facing problems in managing their weight, we believe it could help all nurses.’


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