advice for selecting a nursing field to enter

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I am a male RN student and will be finished in another 15 months. I was wondering what fields of nursing, if any, I can pursue that will minimize fecal exposure? I have no problem with blood and guts, but I can barely contain myself from throwing up when I enter rooms with patients (most I have treated thus far were elderly) who have fecal incontinence. Any recommendations? I know some will say try another field all together, but was wondering if there are any fields of nursing that I might be able to handle better? I can't honestly see how anyone would want to be exposed to some of the environments I have been in thus far ever day of their lives, even if they do care.

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Well in a dream world: outpatients clinics, public health. But I've seen nurses in every area have a "poopy" patient. Who do you think is going to clean up? Even in Mum&Baby clinics, it seems as if the Mum forgets how to change a nappy when it's in the presence of a nurse. You get incontinent patients on the OR table, dialysis, L&D, I've even heard of it happening in a diabetes clinic and the family felt that the nurse educator should be changing Dad because

"he's in the hospital".

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Specializes in Nursing Professional Development.

NICU babies have poop ... but it is usually small.

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Specializes in Telemetry & PCU.

i was the same way and now, 6 months after graduating and 2 months on the job, its not a big deal. you just get use to it. relax and let your nursing kung fu take over; you'll be fine.:D

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all health providers have to deal poo at some point unless you go into administrative work or radiology. or perhaps you can look for clinical research jobs were you will only deal mostly with blood and urine samples during clinical trials.

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Let me tell you, WRONG CAREER BUDDY. You will never get rid of it, you might be able to choose a path where you wont see it often, but you will. Most of it comes from MedSurg, SubAcute, Pulmonary, DOU, ER ect. ect. Dont be that guy that goes "EEeeeeeewwwwww", man up and do what you gotta do. Workin as a RN you gotta be able to turn that switch off and on from work to home or your not gonna make it. The second I get out of my car, i turn myself off and become a working machine that can handle anything.

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Dino, almost all patients are geriatric. At least, even they're being kept overnight. And they are largely incontinent of, well, everything.

Until you can handle it carry a little bottle of Vick's and plug your nostrils with it. Seriously. Then you can make a decision uninfluenced by gagging.

Oh, and I never thought I'd be able to deal with puke. Guess what! I can.

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Specializes in Trauma ICU, Peds ICU.

Yeah dude, you're going to have to suck it up... there's no escaping.

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Take a year off to work on a dairy farm.

That was my first job, good prep.

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Specializes in LTC/Subacute.

Everything seemed nasty to me before I started nursing school. Now I've been a nurse for 4 months and have had my hands in EVERYTHING! Colostomies, green/yellow sputum suctioning, Sputum shot at me from an old, open trach ostomy, nasty, right in the side of my head! I've learned to duck when I hear the tell tale sounds! lol. Have one pt that fires feces everytime you turn him to check his skin condition. Not something I wake up looking forward to, but you definately get used to it man. Good luck.

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Specializes in ER OR LTC Code Blue Trauma Dog.
Yeah dude, you're going to have to suck it up... there's no escaping.

This is a good time to utilize your acquired delegation skills to summons the poop patrol for a code brown ! :p

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This is a good time to utilize your acquired delegation skills to summons the poop patrol for a code brown ! :p

He who finds the poop, cleans the poop.

It's been practised by every manager that I have ever worked under. How would you like yourself or parent or child to be left waiting in poop until the "patrol" arrived?:mad:

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