http://www.texastribune.org/texas-health-resources/health-reform-and-texas/victoria-hospital-wont-hire-very-obese-workers/

Interesting article.

As a nurse practitioner I find this interesting too. It is going to be difficult to find and keep healthcare staff that fit this proposed criteria. One of the reasons that many nurses are overweight is due to the stress and unhealthy eating schedules that one has to endure as a staff nurse. The fact that many of the patients are 65 years old or older means nothing because half of the patients are at least overweight if not obese. All I can say is good luck to them.

Wow. Unless the person cannot physically carry out the duties required to do the job, I don't see why their weight would get in the way. Also, unfortunately, America is getting fatter every year. They are going to have a smaller pool of candidates and may pass up some amazing nurses because of their weight. They may choose a smaller, less experienced nurse over an outstanding larger nurse who does the job very well. Pretty sad.

That angers me. It's like saying that someone is age 55 is not employable because of his/her age. Crazy. I hope they get a lawsuit for this.

I really don't wanna believe that kind of prejudice exists, but I know it does and is becoming a much larger part of our society. This kind of discrimination will not help the people who need care, and being obese does not stop one from being a good caregiver/nurse.

I believe that overweight people are passed over all the time for jobs. The only difference is that this hospital put it in writing. I would guess other companies have similar policies.

They can use the excuse of higher insurance premiums to had the discrimination. I agree with Amanda. It happens all the time.

I think that this has occurred to some degree for many years. The last job in the medical field that I applied for in the past couple of months required you to pass a drug screen and also a nicotine test. If you test positive for the nicotine you have not option but you can reapply in 6 months. What will they ask of you next????????????

@ Andy, DNA? Oh, and facebook password

I am a fat nurse - and a damn good one at that, if I do say so myself. How many times have I rolled a patient by myself, while my skinnier counterpart was out on her 15th smoke break of the day?

I can say that I have suffered discrimination due to my weight, both in hiring and in working. And I have had patients comment about it - even had a patient refuse to allow me to care for her once due to my weight. But you know what? About 25% of my patients in house are obese. And many more than that are overweight - am I permitted to discriminate against them? Absolutely not.

In fact, I have used my weight as an encouragement to my overweight patients - we sit and talk about ways to manage diabetes, ways to increase mobility...and I have had more than a few say how much the appreciated receiving teaching from someone that knew exactly where they were coming from, instead of being lectured at by some stick-thin twig who's never had a cheeseburger in her entire life.

Once we start discriminating based off of image, where does the slippery slope end?

Why not? I hate that this is happening, but employers are getting out of control. Just yesterday, I watched something on the news about employers demanding email addresses and passwords for your facebook account so that they can go poking around to make sure you are an "upstanding citizen". Seriously???