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Abstract:
The task of nurses is to diagnose and treat human responses to illness and the threats of illness. The challenge is in finding the correct diagnosis and selecting the appropriate treatment. To do this appropriately, nurses need to separate health and illness from life-style; to discover whether or not life-style changes are really called for in treating illness or threats of illness or if nurses are uncomfortable with life-styles that are different from their own and expect all people to have a life-style similar to theirs. To intervene appropriately, nurses need to know whether they are working to help others return to their life-style preference or are forcing patients to chose the nurses' life-style preference. The case of the obese and the search for the successful dieter exemplifies the health care system's need to have individuals follow an exercise and eating program to lead them to thinness (a cultural value) whether or not they value thinness. Are health professionals forcing patients to conform to the professionals' life-style rather than assisting them to a healthier state within their own?