Photo featured on Obesity Network's Image Bank
"When treating obese patients, forget about weight loss goals."
That was some of Dr. Arya Sharma's advice to participants in the inaugural Obesity Management Certificate course, a day-long program at the Health Sciences Education and Research Commons (HSERC) at the University of Alberta. The Obesity Management Certificate is a one-day course designed to help health professionals better understand obesity, it causes and complications, and learn to work respectfully with bariatric, or obese, patients.
Obesity is a health challenge for an estimated 20 percent of the population; it is increasingly critical that health professionals understand and are equipped to provide care to obese patients. That's what led Sharma, Scientific Director of the Canadian Obesity Network, to develop the course, which covers everything from the body mass index and its limitations, to the psychological implications of obesity stigma.
"With each patient, you have to identify the problem that can be addressed through obesity management," says Sharma. "The sooner you can define what you can improve for the patient - back pain, sleep or mobility for example - the better. That then is your goal. It's crucial that you move very early away from a weight-focused goal."
Sharma (also a professor of Medicine and chair for Obesity Research and Management at the U of A) is aware that his philosophy flies in the face of what some consider common knowledge. He says most health professionals don't understand the physiology and psychology behind obesity because education programs barely touch on it. The Obesity Management Certificate course is designed to fill those gaps.
"If you compare what you are learning about obesity to what you're learning about diabetes or heart failure, you find you are learning really nothing about obesity," he says. "We also have a bias, we discriminate; people say there are topics more important than obesity that you need to learn first. There are still many who believe the patient is responsible for their obesity and is not worthy of help."
Other health professionals joined Dr. Sharma to facilitate the day. Jean Jacque Lovely, a Registered Nurse and Ambulatory Care Program Manager with Alberta Health Services, spoke about caring for obese patients. Occupational Therapist Mary Forhan from McMaster University addressed sensitivity issues. The clinicians provided hands-on demonstrations both in the Bariatric Suite and HSERC's Smart Condo™, a simulated home environment.
Dr. Sharma is the academic lead using HSERC's Specialized Care Suite for simulations, teaching and training in bariatrics.
This unique space "meets the increasing need to train health professionals in the care and handling of patients with severe obesity," Sharma says. The suite has equipment designed for bariatric patients, including a hospital bed, lifts and slings to ease patients in and out of bed and to the washroom and shower area, and bariatric-sized furniture including lounge and sleeper chairs.
To help combat weight bias in the media, Sharma assembled an image bank, Perfect at Any Size, with pictures showing obese people living healthy, active lives. Sharma felt this was important since the media typically portrays obese patients in unflattering situations, most often eating, and with their faces obscured. He also shares statistics to refute commonly held prejudices. For example, he says, while obesity can increase the risk for chronic diseases such as diabetes and hypertension, life expectancy for obese people with such conditions may exceed that for others with the same conditions.
That was some of Dr. Arya Sharma's advice to participants in the inaugural Obesity Management Certificate course, a day-long program at the Health Sciences Education and Research Commons (HSERC) at the University of Alberta. The Obesity Management Certificate is a one-day course designed to help health professionals better understand obesity, it causes and complications, and learn to work respectfully with bariatric, or obese, patients.
Obesity is a health challenge for an estimated 20 percent of the population; it is increasingly critical that health professionals understand and are equipped to provide care to obese patients. That's what led Sharma, Scientific Director of the Canadian Obesity Network, to develop the course, which covers everything from the body mass index and its limitations, to the psychological implications of obesity stigma.
"With each patient, you have to identify the problem that can be addressed through obesity management," says Sharma. "The sooner you can define what you can improve for the patient - back pain, sleep or mobility for example - the better. That then is your goal. It's crucial that you move very early away from a weight-focused goal."
Sharma (also a professor of Medicine and chair for Obesity Research and Management at the U of A) is aware that his philosophy flies in the face of what some consider common knowledge. He says most health professionals don't understand the physiology and psychology behind obesity because education programs barely touch on it. The Obesity Management Certificate course is designed to fill those gaps.
"If you compare what you are learning about obesity to what you're learning about diabetes or heart failure, you find you are learning really nothing about obesity," he says. "We also have a bias, we discriminate; people say there are topics more important than obesity that you need to learn first. There are still many who believe the patient is responsible for their obesity and is not worthy of help."
Other health professionals joined Dr. Sharma to facilitate the day. Jean Jacque Lovely, a Registered Nurse and Ambulatory Care Program Manager with Alberta Health Services, spoke about caring for obese patients. Occupational Therapist Mary Forhan from McMaster University addressed sensitivity issues. The clinicians provided hands-on demonstrations both in the Bariatric Suite and HSERC's Smart Condo™, a simulated home environment.
Dr. Sharma is the academic lead using HSERC's Specialized Care Suite for simulations, teaching and training in bariatrics.
This unique space "meets the increasing need to train health professionals in the care and handling of patients with severe obesity," Sharma says. The suite has equipment designed for bariatric patients, including a hospital bed, lifts and slings to ease patients in and out of bed and to the washroom and shower area, and bariatric-sized furniture including lounge and sleeper chairs.
To help combat weight bias in the media, Sharma assembled an image bank, Perfect at Any Size, with pictures showing obese people living healthy, active lives. Sharma felt this was important since the media typically portrays obese patients in unflattering situations, most often eating, and with their faces obscured. He also shares statistics to refute commonly held prejudices. For example, he says, while obesity can increase the risk for chronic diseases such as diabetes and hypertension, life expectancy for obese people with such conditions may exceed that for others with the same conditions.
Sharma is hoping to offer the Obesity Management Certification in the fall. Ultimately, he'd prefer to see the course as an integrated part of all health faculties' curricula. Now that the American Medical Association has designated obesity a disease, Sharma may get his wish.
"Obesity shouldn't be a specialty," he says. "It should be taught as basic knowledge for every health professional."