Career in Nursing

If you see it, you will probably need to clean it up. It's certainly unfair to leave it for someone else! How often you see vomit or other bodily excretions depends a lot on where you work, but in nursing school you will have a variety of placements and are therefore likely to see bodily excretions fairly often. It really is not as bad as it seems. Most of us eventually have children and deal with very similar issues at home for no pay. I suggest you try shadowing a nurse for a day or two and find out what the job is really like.

I, too, feel the same way about vomit...but I think that it is something that we have deal with. I think that maybe if you can shadow a nursing assistant, you can see what you'll have to deal with at least in the beginning of your clinicals. As you move on, you'll start to be able to see the multitudes of other skills done by RNs.

Where I work, many of the PCAs (instead of CNAs) take care of the basic things for the patients. 90% of them are nursing students, and many of them initially felt as you did, but now it is just part of the job.

Hey CareerChange

First of all, why did becoming a Nurse occur to you and what motivates you to push as far as finding a school, finding out the pre-reqs etc. You've done a lot and it must have some sorta positive push towards the career.

Second, there are lots of good reasons for not becoming a nurse but the fear of getting grossed out is NOT one of them. The best reason would be that you are uncomfortable with the emotional committment you have to make to your Pt. You step in where that person's family would if they could--if they had the knowledge and credentials. Nurses often follow up on their Pts--drifting out of the ICU to the step-down to check on how they're doing. Pts are occaisionally in our dreams. Lots of us find ourselves browsing in the Obituary columns.

Don't wanta come across as some MotherThersa wanna be. (No body EVER accused me of that!) But the committment has to be there in whatever way you experience it.

I've been in sales, construction and worked on cars. The grossest thing I've had to deal with was in a garage. 'Sposed to fix a muffler. Found the customer had run over a dog a few days ago--the dog was still there.
We didn't have rubber gloves in the garage.

Yer Papaw John

in any hospital setting, you will def. see your share of vomit, blood, poop, and pee. actually, i think you will see all of the above in EVERY setting as a nurse, it just varies in the amount of vomit, blood, poop, pee you will see in different settings.
if you dont like seeing this or cleaning it up, don't be a nurse. at some point in your nursing career, even during clinicals in nursing school, you will see alot of this stuff. human bodily excretions, it still grosses me out.

Hello,

I understand that many people have adverse effect to bodily fluids. I cannot stand spit and the sounds of bring it up from the stomach through the esphogus and to the mouth and spitting it in a cup, across the yard or any place outside the body. I can deal with fecal matter and I can tell you who has c-diff in a five secs, vomit, urine, and even a yeast infection or std smells. I just do not know why I cannot deal with spit. However, I can stand there and look at it for abnormal fluid. I will take care o my patients no matter of the sounds of phlem or what ever body fluid is being expell from their body. Therefore, you become immune from the sounds, body fluids and odors.

Honey, you will be at lunch talking about the body fluids and etc. It is funny cause it is like a normal conversation. I would never thought of talking about it while I am eatting a meal. Its a normal thing with doctors and nurses or we are insane people lol.

You will be fine and become immune like all of us. Hey, do you have an infant or around infants? They do the same thing and it is a normal thing. Just wipe thier faces, clean them up and write a progress note in their chart.

Good luck and you will be a great nurse.

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