8% of the patients and was resolved or improved in 86% (Buchwald H, Avidor Y, Braunwald et al. 2004). This need for such extreme measures underlines the difficulty of patients to alter their entrenched lifestyle patterns. The sooner these patterns can be altered, the better. Working with younger patients to modify their diets, setting realistic weight-loss and exercise goals, and creating a home and school environment where weight loss is rewarded are all important in lessening the chance that obesity will lead to long-term complications and require surgery. Nurses must take a multifaceted approach to treatment that accounts for: the biological, behavioral, and environmental influences that contribute to diabetes and obesity. The nurse must acknowledge that modern society often makes it easier to be obese than to be slim. Cheap calorie-concentrated foods seem attractive and it is easy to avoid physical exercise. Empowering the patient to show how they have a choice to select healthier and less processed foods, to take the stairs or take a walk is essential so that obesity in young people does not develop into a pre-diabetic condition. Self-guided treatment is essential and may be equally effective as regular counseling. "A study examining 12 weeks of behavior therapy for obesity found that augmenting treatment with computer-assisted therapy was a cost-effective way to improve outcomes at a 6-month follow-up. Viewers who watched on video the 8 sessions of an 8-week videotaped obesity treatment group lost as much weight as did participants in the live group"(Later 2007).

Self-empowerment, facilitated by the nurse as teacher is the most hopeful model for the treatment of childhood...

Although clinical outcomes promoting these strategies do not show the conclusive results in mitigating the effects of diabetes, or in reducing patient BMI in the long run as weight-loss surgery, nurses must try to create effective self-directed counseling programs that offer less risky prescriptions than surgery for the young. The nurse must remember that the patient exists in an obesogenic environment that he or she must navigate, and refrain from blaming the patient, while acknowledging that it is only the patient who can make the lifestyle decisions that can result in an improved quality of life. Nurses today must acknowledge their unique role in treating lifestyle ailments, as well as remember that their clinical practice cannot heal all of society nor completely control an environment that constantly facilitates the patient's predicament.
Works Cited

Behr, Mary. (2007, Apr). "Diabetes."

MedSurg Nursing. Retrieved 1 Feb 2008 at http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m0FSS/is_2_16/ai_n19295822

Buchwald H, Avidor Y, Braunwald E, et al. (2004). "Bariatric surgery: a systematic review and meta-analysis." JAMA 292:1724-1737.

Latner, Janet D. (2007, Mar/Apr). Self-help for Obesity and Binge Eating. Nutrition Today. 42.2: 81-85. Retrieved 1 Feb 2008 at http://www.nursingcenter.com/prodev/ce_article.asp?tid=717760

Regber, Susann, Berg-Kelly, Kristina, Marild & Staffan (2007, Jan 1).

Pediatric Nursing Retrieved 1 Feb 2008 at http://goliath.ecnext.com/coms2/gi_0199-6364594/Parenting-styles-and-treatment-of.html#abstract

Nursing Research