Okay, I will put in my two cents worth. I am a nurse, I educate nurses, and I have worked in multiple healthcare situations in Canada.

Nurses are responsible for their own health. They need not eat out of 'vending machines' but can make sound food choices too.

But I will tell you this much, the stress level and the amount of increasing professional responsibility is devastating on their bodies and minds, and I can almost bet if you tested cortisol levels they would be sky high. Any nurse who works 3-12 hours shifts or more a week is likely NOT sleeping properly, which we know is a recipe for health disaster.

My nurses are expected to find 2-3 hours a day just charting on their patient's, and if you work a 12 hours shift.....try 3- 4 hours.
That 4 day holiday that you mentioned Squarepusher....guess what nurses do on their days off??....recover.  They try to anyway.  But then there are children and a household to take care for, groceries to buy, laundry to do, aging parents to care for, and financial things to attend to....and then they try to get in an hour a day at the gym or walk.....

The average age of a nurse in North America is 47 years old. That means that peri menopause is messing with hormone levels too....

Nurses have one of the hardest jobs in the country.  I stand by that from personal experience.  They need support, not criticism.

Do you think that a contributor is the fact that nurses are expected to walk on water, remain lucid, and carry out important tasks when they work 12-hour shifts, sleep little and eat out of vending machines?
I would not become a nurse if it payed $500K per year.

OK.  Maybe I would. 
No I wouldn't   :)

This is very disturbing. I was just reading an article a day or so ago in our local newspaper, that a hospital in our area, that I thought had their stuff together, was one of the top hospitals with the most deaths after surgery. Very Scary since this hospital was the hospital of choice before the hospital in my own town, which ironically was one of the lowest hospitals in deaths.

I agree with samurai, nurses are overworked and they have terrible diets. Combine this with staffing cutbacks and you have a recipe for disaster.