Tim's shift wasn't quite over. At 6:45 p.m., a code was called. Since he was a member of the code team, Tim exhaustively puffed up three flights of stairs to the unfortunate patient's room, where he was met by two other members of the code team whose own health was compromised by unhealthy diets and lack of exercise. Breathlessly, the trio initiated CPR. Although the preceding story is a hypothetical scenario, it is not a complete break from reality. Many nurses have a hard time maintaining their own health these days. They are constantly juggling multiple roles as mothers and fathers, full-time professionals and intermittent students, . As they try to balance their time between patients, family, friends and self, they don’t seem to have time for adequate rest and nutrition. No wonder many have a difficult time caring for themselves. For years, my primary health maintenance involved the martial arts, which allowed me to take time out of my routine to meditate and to strengthen and renew my body and mind. But even that holistic discipline could fight back. One day I hurt my back while stretching and spinning for higher kicks. I chose a chiropractor to treat my injury, and after a few weeks of heat, adjustments and electrical stimulation that made me twitch like a laboratory frog, I was able to work out again. I pronounced myself healed and informed my chiropractor we could discontinue therapy. He responded that I would need treatment for the rest of my life. But I insisted that I felt fine. Why would I need ongoing interventions? “To counteract the stress of living," he answered. I was not about to give up responsibility for my own health. I would continue my self-constructed health program, however cautiously. But there was a message for me: Bodies don't stay healthy by themselves; they have to be cultivated and maintained. isn't easy for nurses — or for our patients. And if we ask them to modify lifestyles to stay healthy without modifying our own, we may be less than convincing. Many nurses don't live generally unhealthy lives. But those who do — smoked out, overfed, overworked and underexercised — generate an additional risk beyond their personal health. They diminish our persuasiveness with people who need to believe in our coaching and counseling.