On a discussion board, a nurse asked if it was "hypocritical" for nurses to smoke. That word gets thrown around a lot in such contexts. These are my thoughts about calling nurses "hypocrites" for engaging in less-than-healthful habits, such as smoking, obesity, or whatever.

"Let me suggest that the way the question is phrased tells us something about the way the answer will go.

We usually use the terms "hypocrite" or "hypocrisy" in religious terms.

We speak of someone as a "hypocrite" who "preaches" (notice the word) one thing, and does another in their own life.

However ... nursing is a professional field. It's not a religious calling, a path of devotion of whatever. As I've said before, it's not even about "caring": it's about providing competent, ethically-informed professional services.

Calling a nurse a "hypocrite" in this context suggests that a nurse who smokes has a religious calling which is their life.

On the contrary, nursing is a nurse's job. That doesn't take away from it, it just says that nurses are there to provide professional services, and, frankly, their personal life is not part of the picture.

It might be stupid for a nurse -- who should know better -- to smoke, be overweight, whatever, but it's not "hypocrisy." It's just dumb. Nurses who counsel patients to quit smoking are not doing so because smoking is "wrong": we do it because it's a bad habit, and damaging to one's health."