[Health habits of health professionals]

The conduct of medical professionals is an important educational point of reference for the many people who see and know them. Nurses and other medical workers are often role models in which their daily health habits may be imitated by their patients, family of friends. With this in mind a study, based on a previously published work in the United States (Health Practices of Nursing Students), was performed to determine, first, if the daily habits of nurses are indeed healthy and adequate to communicate a salubrious lifestyle; second, to see if this group considers themselves capable and responsible for changing those unsanitary habits that they do have. Results of the surveys of 125 subject nurses from the University of Navarra indicate that there is a great amount of consciousness regarding the danger of most unsanitary habits and the need to avoid them, although many of them remain firmly entrenched in their daily lives. The percentage of nurses who felt capable or responsible for changing unhealthy practices was low (67.5%).