I'm not "WIPING BUTTS"

Nurses General Nursing

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I know there have been numerous threads about this already, but this is more for a "vent" then a discussion/debate. I have a friend who is currently a medical assistant. She wants to go to nursing school, to make more money. I have no problem with anyone wanting to make a better living. I suggested to her the other day that she consider working in a hospital to gain some experience and see what the "real world" of nursing is about. She replied that she would love to but she "doesn't want to wipe butts for a fulltime job." I told her she better not go to nursing school :rotfl:

She claims that she will deal with the "butt wiping" for school, but not as a fulltime job! I mean WHAT DO YOU THINK NURSES DO!?!?!??!?! Prance around in cute uniforms and hand out meds?????? This is NOT the glamorous life!!! It is dirty, filthy, smelly, sometimes just plan disgusting, but it is HUMANITY. She seems to think that once she is a nurse she doesn't have to assist patients with ADL's because thats "not her job." I can't tell you how many bedpans and "butts I have wiped" in the past week. No, its not my priority, but am I going to walk away from a patient when they ask for a bedpan when it only takes 2 seconds??? NO! I'm SORRY but I don't think we need people in nursing with this mentality of being "above that." If you can't see passed the BUTT WIPING and see it for what really is...which is giving a human being their DIGNITY and RESPECT than you DO NOT BELONG HERE!!!!!!!

I guess I should just let it go and let her be ignorant. I doubt she'll make it passed the first semester with that attitude anyway.

Specializes in PCU, Home Health.

I'm not "WIPING BUTTS"

I'm protecting the integrity of my patient's perianal area.

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Specializes in Telemetry.

A year or two ago if anyone ever said I would be OK with wiping butts and looking at snot in nursing school, I would have told them there is no way they were right! No, I never thought it as beneath me. I used to imagine that I would vomit at the sight and smell of poo or urine or imagine trying to clean it up and getting stuff all over me in the process (I could be clumsy at times).

I felt the same way!!

I don't think anyone's goal in life is to be a butt-wiper, but it comes with the territory. But, i don't think you fully appreciate the significance of what you're doing until you have to do it. In theory, it's just gross, but in practice you're making someone's life a little bit better- in both comfort and hygiene.

I wouldn't hold it against her- every nurse (and student nurse) has that one thing that gets them... but it doesn't mean that they aren't a great nurse otherwise. I get nauseaus at the thought of a decub, but don't even flinch when it comes to a code brown.

The funny thing is- before i went to nursing school, i was scared of blood, queasy at the thought of ANY kind of bodily fluids/functions, and got the cold sweats when i'd see a needle. Now, i get psyched for a diabetic patient and IM injections, clean a butt like it's what i was raised to do, and don't even flinch when it comes to blood- whatever the quantity may be. I also thought that i'd cry hysterically if i had a pediatric cancer patient- but i had one for the first time last week, and I was fine with that, too. I think nursing school (and nursing) teaches us strengths and abilities (and convictions) that we never knew we had, but it's not something you can expect from someone else until they're experienced it. I'm sure there are tons of great nurses that, at one point in their life, muttered the words "i'm not wiping butt," and now they probably laugh at the thought that they once thought that.

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What's the big deal bout butt wiping anyway? Everyone does it. I know some people think its gross, but I always look at it as simply managing a natural body function so I've never had any issues with it. But, as long as I determine that the patients are capable of doing it properly for themselves I encourage them to do it. Most people are very sensitive about this and would rather do it themselves anyway.

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Specializes in ER, tele, vascular.
Okay. I'm a lab assistant, and I have helped patients toilet, washed backs, dressed, undressed, set up meal trays, and wiped up urine. NONE of those things are in my "job description", but the pt needed these things done, and I was the one there, so...

Just in case you haven't heard this before now................Thank you. Thank you for taking the time to do something that wasn't in your job description and help a patient out because they needed help. I wish there were more nurses, techs, etc who had this attitude. Again,Thank you.

Craig

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Gotta laugh at the idea of a nurse that won't wipe butts.......:smackingf

ahhhh the energy this woman will spend trying to find someone else to do this will be enormous.:banghead:

I agree with the time will tell posts......she won't get out of wiping butts for long.....she will either quit the profession or be so exhausted from walking around searching for someone to do something that is "not her job" that she will give in and become "one of us"!!!:nurse: :yeahthat:

Life is short eat dessert first....live right,eat well and exercise die anyway!

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Specializes in ER, tele, vascular.
I felt the same way!!

I don't think anyone's goal in life is to be a butt-wiper, but it comes with the territory. But, i don't think you fully appreciate the significance of what you're doing until you have to do it. In theory, it's just gross, but in practice you're making someone's life a little bit better- in both comfort and hygiene.

I am no fan of poop. There is nothing about cleaning butts / poo that I enjoy....................except knowing that I helped someone feel better, made them more comfortable, let them know that "I understand this is embarrassing but we'll get you cleaned up here in no time and you can visit with your family, go back to sleep, etc......." It is the internal reward of knowing that I did something for someone who was / is incapable of doing for themselves and it benefited them. In saying all of this I am just agreeing with neenie and what her(?) comment was.Craig

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I'm not "WIPING BUTTS"

I'm protecting the integrity of my patient's perianal area.

amen to that :nurse:

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Hear this everyday from the younger nurses. Just smile and remember, every dog has it's day.

:lol2: :lol2:

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Specializes in post-op.

I don't think anyone likes to clean up poop, but come on....think of how embarressed the patients must feel. My mom was very sick when I was young and she had sore all in her peri area, she has told me before how thankful she was that the nurses/techs cleaned her up and changed dressings, and how mortified she was. No matter how yucky something looks/smells, I always think to myself how that person is feeling as I am cleaning it up. After all they probably wouldn't be hospitilized if they didn't need the help :)

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:angryfire This mentality is so hard to take!! :angryfire If you can't bring yourself to wipe my butt, please, get out of my face! Nursing is a calling, a noble and caring profession. Florence Nightengale certainly did not need to be knee deep in blood, guts and pestilence she chose to be for the sake of the soldiers. She is the role model for our professison, Remember? ;)

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I know there have been numerous threads about this already, but this is more for a "vent" then a discussion/debate. I have a friend who is currently a medical assistant. She wants to go to nursing school, to make more money. I have no problem with anyone wanting to make a better living. I suggested to her the other day that she consider working in a hospital to gain some experience and see what the "real world" of nursing is about. She replied that she would love to but she "doesn't want to wipe butts for a fulltime job." I told her she better not go to nursing school :rotfl:

She claims that she will deal with the "butt wiping" for school, but not as a fulltime job! I mean WHAT DO YOU THINK NURSES DO!?!?!??!?! Prance around in cute uniforms and hand out meds?????? This is NOT the glamorous life!!! It is dirty, filthy, smelly, sometimes just plan disgusting, but it is HUMANITY. She seems to think that once she is a nurse she doesn't have to assist patients with ADL's because thats "not her job." I can't tell you how many bedpans and "butts I have wiped" in the past week. No, its not my priority, but am I going to walk away from a patient when they ask for a bedpan when it only takes 2 seconds??? NO! I'm SORRY but I don't think we need people in nursing with this mentality of being "above that." If you can't see passed the BUTT WIPING and see it for what really is...which is giving a human being their DIGNITY and RESPECT than you DO NOT BELONG HERE!!!!!!!

I guess I should just let it go and let her be ignorant. I doubt she'll make it passed the first semester with that attitude anyway.

UPDATE: today she further explains to me that she wants to do something "upscale" when she becomes a nurse.....:lol2: I mean WHAT THE HELL DOES THAT MEAN!?!?!? "nurse" and "upscale" are NOT two words that correlate! I guess she thinks that the richer you are the more pleasant your bodily fluids??? :chuckle

ughh, society has such a DISTORTED view of nursing. For now on, I'm just going to nod and smile

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Specializes in Med-Surg, Trauma, Ortho, Neuro, Cardiac.
UPDATE: today she further explains to me that she wants to do something "upscale" when she becomes a nurse.....:lol2: I mean WHAT THE HELL DOES THAT MEAN!?!?!? "nurse" and "upscale" are NOT two words that correlate! I guess she thinks that the richer you are the more pleasant your bodily fluids??? :chuckle

ughh, society has such a DISTORTED view of nursing. For now on, I'm just going to nod and smile

Sounds like a good way of dealing with it. It's too aggravating otherwise....upscale indeed. :lol2:

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