I was recently in a study session with some of classmates for a Microbiology class. We started talking about nursing in general and I jokingly said we are going to be professional a$$ wipers! (btw, I was just joking no need to comment on this :)) But they both looked at me with puzzled looks and said that we don't have to do that as nurses that CNAs do that. I asked them, if a patient has an accident while under your care what are you going to do? They looked uncomfortable with this question and just answered that they are aware that as a nurse those situations are not common. One claimed that her entire family was in nursing and she knows first hand that nurses hardly have to do that.
It just baffles me how many people go into nursing thinking that this things are beneath them? As experienced nurses how often are you faced with that situation, where you have to clean up a patient's feces and vomit. I honestly thought that you have do that often.
Wow...I can't believe people actually think that rns dont do that kind of patient care. One of the reasons I want to go into nursing (i start ns in the fall) is that I had lets just say way too much morphine after a surgery (to repair a broken wrist) that made me real sick. I vomited for 2 days. And who held my hair, held my bucket, cleaned me up, and rinsed my bucket and providing the medication I needed to try to calm the vomiting? all the while being so sensitive and professional to my distress, and allowed me to still keep my dignity? That wonderful nurse thats who!!! I want to be just like her. Vomit, poop, and blood don't scare me! (I have 3 kids) hahah
That is one of the reason I think it is a good idea to work as a CNA first. I know how to DO personal care, I know how to transfer patients and not just the few I did in clinicals. And these nurses may work in a hospital that the nurses do their own care! They are in for a rude awakening
OT somewhat but I just want to point out that it's not necessarily true that all RNs that were once CNAs do great patient care and some RNs (such as myself) who never had any CNA experience before becoming an RN do lots of patient care. I transfer, clean patients, put them on bedpans, do straight sticks for labs (a tech job on my floor), do oral care and bed baths, etc. You just learn to do what needs to be done and work as a team. Sometimes that means delegating that work and sometimes it means doing it yourself.
Wow...I can't believe people actually think that rns dont do that kind of patient care. One of the reasons I want to go into nursing (i start ns in the fall) is that I had lets just say way too much morphine after a surgery (to repair a broken wrist) that made me real sick. I vomited for 2 days. And who held my hair held my bucket, cleaned me up, and rinsed my bucket and providing the medication I needed to try to calm the vomiting? all the while being so sensitive and professional to my distress, and allowed me to still keep my dignity? That wonderful nurse thats who!!! I want to be just like her. Vomit, poop, and blood don't scare me! (I have 3 kids) hahah[/quote']
It may not be that you had too much morphine- but that you were experiencing a common side effect of morphine- nausea and vomiting- and should have been treated aggrssively for it, if not contraindicated..
I clean up whomever and whenever - they ask, I'll help. I know many nurses who will be right there and step out of the door and call for a CNA to put the pt on the bedpan. It angers me - we're all there to help and no job is beneath us. This includes docs in the room - they could take 2 seconds to give them a bedpan - our time is just as valuable.
Yes, you are right...I was told at first that the vomiting was a side effect of the anesthesia, until apparently...it got worse not better over the course of the next 24 hours. So after two days of getting worse not better, on of my nurses suggested we turn off the iv and see if I did better. It was only a matter of 15 minutes before I was not vomiting and back to my peppy self. Don't know if they should have figured out the morphine was causing the vomiting sooner but.....oh well. That was the least of my worries. I actually had broken my wrist 6 months before and the surgeon did such an awful job of repair that it became a hand I could not use, deformed and painful...So I found thru my physical therapist a hand surgeon who performed a bone graft and rebroke the bone to repair the malunion. That was the surgery that ended up causing the awful vomiting. Just happy to have found that dr and I now have a normal, fully functional, painfree hand and arm.
I know you said some LTC nurses- but LTC is where I've had the most BM duties as an RN.
Yeah, I meant some, not all, by any means. I certainly wasn't trying to paint LTC nurses as lazy. I do know that MANY LTC nurses appreciate the aides' work and help wherever and whenever they can.
Your classmates may or may not be delusional, but they are good for a chuckle.
When I graduated, the big "thing" in nursing was primary care. No tech, aid, not even LPN came to our aid on the floor, ER or ICU. In ICU, each pt. had a bath and linen change every shift unless they were crashing. The RN did it all.
That is no longer the case, because of the financial factor.
In homecare, I have found pt. buried in days/weeks worth of excrement with wounds to the bone. I had to clean all of this up myself. Family members and caregivers tend to say "I am squeamish".
Once, a fellow RN threw a colostomy bag and wafer on my desk at work and told me "I am a high tech ER nurse and I don't handle these. You will have to get someone else to do this." She was not in the ER, she was a home care nurse. She did not have to clean up anything. Administration loved her, she was the favorite child and always got her way. She even talked baby talk at work on the phone for hours on end while others did her work. Another nurse was sent to clean up for her. She did not have to touch that nasty ostomy or even smell it.
OT somewhat but I just want to point out that it's not necessarily true that all RNs that were once CNAs do great patient care and some RNs (such as myself) who never had any CNA experience before becoming an RN do lots of patient care. I transfer, clean patients, put them on bedpans, do straight sticks for labs (a tech job on my floor), do oral care and bed baths, etc. You just learn to do what needs to be done and work as a team. Sometimes that means delegating that work and sometimes it means doing it yourself.
Good point. However, I get the feeling, from this post, that you're a reasonable, intelligent person and had a clue what you were getting into before you started nursing school. While I do believe that CNA experience is helpful prior to nursing school---and in fact it is a prerequisite for some programs---there are some nurses, like yourself, who are competent and WILLING to do the "dirty" work in nursing, even if you were brand-new to that type of work when you were a student.
I think the problem is not so much with nurses who don't know how to perform these tasks but with those who consider themselves above them. If I remember correctly, there was an article several years ago in one of the nursing journals about British nursing students who balked at giving bed baths because they were "too posh to wash". I think that sort of attitude is unrealistic, demeaning to those who to whom such tasks are delegated, and foolish because doing direct patient care is the best way to assess someone. If there's an emesis, diarrhea, anything extraordinary, the nurse is going to WANT to see it, to know what's going on with the patient. Direct patient care is also a great opportunity to communicate with the patient and address his/her concerns.
I also think students who think they'll never have to do anything "gross" are either rather immature or are in store for massive reality shock when they find they ARE expected to do these tasks.
Your classmates are not for real! Our MDs even help clean up messes if they are there when it happens! I am blessed not to have to work under those conditions anymore! We are a team...we round as a team...clean as a team........cry and moan as a team! Can I get a whoot whoot!
Good point. However, I get the feeling, from this post, that you're a reasonable, intelligent person and had a clue what you were getting into before you started nursing school. While I do believe that CNA experience is helpful prior to nursing school---and in fact it is a prerequisite for some programs---there are some nurses, like yourself, who are competent and WILLING to do the "dirty" work in nursing, even if you were brand-new to that type of work when you were a student.
I think the problem is not so much with nurses who don't know how to perform these tasks but with those who consider themselves above them. If I remember correctly, there was an article several years ago in one of the nursing journals about British nursing students who balked at giving bed baths because they were "too posh to wash". I think that sort of attitude is unrealistic, demeaning to those who to whom such tasks are delegated, and foolish because doing direct patient care is the best way to assess someone. If there's an emesis, diarrhea, anything extraordinary, the nurse is going to WANT to see it, to know what's going on with the patient. Direct patient care is also a great opportunity to communicate with the patient and address his/her concerns.
I also think students who think they'll never have to do anything "gross" are either rather immature or are in store for massive reality shock when they find they ARE expected to do these tasks.
I agree completely. I know a few RNs like that. Ones who will walk out of a room and send a tech in to clean a patient or toilet them. IMO that's just laziness and poor work ethic, which really has nothing to do with what training you have.
I agree with the comment about it depending on the area you are in as well.
As a student, I found it was pretty expected that you would do the bed baths, etc. especially in your first experiences in the clinical setting. Its definitely a bad idea to go to nursing school if you see it that way!
However, I have met a good number of nurses who tell me that they have not done any messy stuff since nursing school. Amongst the posters here, I note that in total care areas like ICU or neuro, you are more likely to provide this kind of care than say in Interventional Radiology or clinic settings. Also, it depends on how many techs, if any and what the expectation is of that workforce.
Before I get flamed, I really don't care either way. I don't plan to choose a job based on this particular issue.
jo'ee
88 Posts
Wow...I can't believe people actually think that rns dont do that kind of patient care. One of the reasons I want to go into nursing (i start ns in the fall) is that I had lets just say way too much morphine after a surgery (to repair a broken wrist) that made me real sick. I vomited for 2 days. And who held my hair, held my bucket, cleaned me up, and rinsed my bucket and providing the medication I needed to try to calm the vomiting? all the while being so sensitive and professional to my distress, and allowed me to still keep my dignity? That wonderful nurse thats who!!! I want to be just like her. Vomit, poop, and blood don't scare me! (I have 3 kids) hahah