cleaning poop

TazziRN, RN · Apr 24, 2006

>>3)We all have to start at the bottom (no pun intended)
:roll :rotfl:

:smackingf

chadash · Apr 24, 2006

It doesnt take long at all to get used to it. You really can learn to turn of your sense of smell. Then just step back and appreciate the satisfaction that comes from providing a nice clean powdered bummy. Ahhh! (I have been doing this way too long.)

Air freshener is nice.

moongirl · Apr 24, 2006

I have yet to find a dept where there is no poop... :uhoh21:

suebird3 · Apr 24, 2006

Nobody likes cleaning it but think about it from the pt's point of view. Most are embarrassed that they need help with this and even ashamed. The smell of emesis can send me running out of the room but I have to grit my teeth and bear it because I am there to help the pt. And it also helps to think "What if this were my father/mother/child?" and act accordingly. That thought has actually gotten me through a lot of yucky things.

This is so true. I had helped clean my Grandma when she was in the hospital right before she died; I figured she changed my diaper enough as an infant....so it was the least I could do for her. She died in Hospice two days later. I still feel good about this.

True, Tube feedings and some ABT make things a bit "tough", or it could just be "normal" for the person.

You will get over it.

Suebird

gatherswool · Apr 24, 2006

Ah....I love the smell of C. diff in the morning!

Just wondering, but how do you know that you can't handle poop scooping? If you've done it a lot and know you can't, then I'm sure you're right. But I remember thinking, when I applied to my ETP Master's program, that I wouldn't be caught dead "wiping bottoms."

I think until you actually do it, there's no way to appreciate what an incredible privilege it is to be able to provide that kind of care to people. It's my own d@#n fault now that I'm going to get a Master's when it turns out that all I want to do is bedside nursing. Of course, fecal incontinence is not really what drew me to the field, but it doesn't bother me. At all. And for the first semester of nursing school, even once I discovered that it wasn't humiliating to clean a fellow human being, stool was still my "thing." Sputum, 3rd degree pressure ulcers, candida, none of it bothered me, but stool-on-vanco could make me retch at fifty paces. It took about one and a half semesters of school for that to go away.

Maybe poop is one thing you'll never be able to handle, but until you've personally slung stool a few times, I don't think you'll know for sure. I recommend giving it a try --- preferably on someone past Huggies age!

LoriAlabamaRN · Apr 24, 2006

Working as a CNA while getting my license was a definite advantage, I lost my oversensitization to the "gross factor" pretty quickly. Honestly, just put some Vicks Vaporub under your nostrils and think of it as dirt. That's all it is, just dirt and you are going to make the patient nice and clean.

Nothing to it, really...

Medic/Nurse, BSN, RN · Apr 24, 2006

S*** happens. As does tink, vomit, blood, rot, snot and so on...

1. Any unpleasant task is best shared! Actually, it is easier with 2 or so - roll, clean, change linen, and so on...

2. Get everything you need to do the job, prepare well. Gown (if necessary-harder to change than protect), mask (use strong mints under) multiple gloves (so you can peel off the dirty layers as you go). Lots of clean linen. Any skin care items needed. A method for bedside trash disposal and dedicated linen container (both need to go to dirty utility without delay to minimize odors). Make the job as easy as possible on you and the patient

For the majority of patients that are aware, there is a degree of modesty that must be maintained. They are generally ashamed that "you have to clean me". But, it is part of patient care and I do love clean patients!

FUNNY * I work in the ED and I left a very capable 45 year old female on the BSC and she screamed out, when I rushed to her bedside to assess the problem, she just replied "I wanted you to know I 'm done and you can do your job and get me wiped and all cleaned up now" Needless to say, she was very disappointed. But, hey I consider it a nursing priority to get patients to participate in their ADL's to the fullest extent possible.

Fret not, Sometimes, you just can't handle it. I try to get out quickly if I feel that I'm not doing well, but I have vomited while providing bedside care. I'm not proud of it, but I'm not immune to a reaction just because I'm a nurse. All you can do is all you can do. I can't say it gets easier, you just get faster:lol2:

LoriAlabamaRN · Apr 24, 2006

Hey, I had one of those princesses too! Totally capable, recuperating from minor ankle surgery and wanted me to come into the bathroom and wipe her bottom and flush the commode for her. Um... no. When she told me that was my job, I told her that my job was to make sure that she would be capable of taking care of herself, and that I would observe her do it one time to make sure she was doing it effectively, but that was it.

Interestingly enough, I had one lady one time who after peeing in the bedpan insisted that instead of using toilet paper, the CNA was to use a hair dryer on "cool"! True story! This was another perfectly capable one!

There are some real sickos out there...

Jennerizer, ASN, RN · Apr 24, 2006

When I was in nursing school, we used to use Vic's Vapor Rub...just a small amount near our nose to eliminate the ability to smell the icky smells that a hospital often has. Since graduating though, I think I've just become used to the odors & have learned to think of something else while quickly cleaning up the patient.

all4schwa · Apr 24, 2006

here's a tip~ smiling inhibits the gag reflex, no really, try it!

also, remember your purpose and do a good job, b/c sometimes people don't and it's a really crappy feeling to not be cleaned well enough.

yes, you get used to doing it, but it never stops stinking. what gets me? people hacking phlem out of a trach, had a guy hit me in the chest as i walked by the foot of the bed, ugh!, i mean, get a bullseye in here for this man:lol2:

JaxiaKiley · Apr 24, 2006

A hair dryer on cool instead of tp? Oh wow - are hospitals supposed to be spas now or what? lol

HerbalGypsy · Apr 24, 2006

Oh, the pooh factor. Most of the time it does not bother me. Just once, when a patient had exploding diarrhea. Thank goodness he could walk to the bathroom. The entire bathroom was covered. Not the ceiling, but the walls and floor, not to mention the commode. And it happened not once, but twice in the same day. Housekeeping said the nurse had to clean most of it before they would touch it. I gagged my way through it. Now I keep a small bottle of lavender or peppermint oil in my locker. I dab:nurse: a little under my nose when necessary. You can do it. When you truly care for your patients it is amazing what you can stomach.