Do Nurses have to do the following??

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Do Nurses have to clean up after patients'?

For instance, if a patient throws up all over themselves or poops on themselves, do Nurses have to clean them up?

What is the most disgusting thing that you have done for a patient?

Give me the dirty 'lowdown' on the gritty work that some Nurses are forced to endure.

Specializes in ICU/Critical Care.

Simple tasks such as bathing a patient or wiping a patient's bum is not beneath you or any other nurse for that matter.

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Specializes in ICU,CCU,CVICU,SICU.
I took their post to mean "How sad" in the fact they were asking an honest question and were getting snarky replies. Don't get me wrong, I am not saying that people were not justified in their responses, but I don't think he was saying how sad as in what nurses have to do. Their can be or is a pretty misconstrued ?? impression of what it is Nurses do, I won't lie, I was always under the impression that CNA's do the dirty work, before coming to this site, I have had a few friends that were CNAs and they told me that is what they did and the RN's didn't. Now finding out the truth doesn't change my mind at all, but from a non nurse reading their post, I think they really wanted to know the nitty gritty of what Nurses do to maybe see if that is a field they want to persue?? JMO

Again please don't anyone take it as me scolding for the replies because that is not what I was trying to do, just maybe share a little insight as to why the OP was asking.

I thought only nurses, or nursing student were on this site...So your post made me curious: Are you in health care at all?

If not, would you mind sharing why you joined a nursing site?

No judgment implied, honest! Just pure curiosity.....

B-

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Specializes in ICU/Critical Care.

AN has a wide variety of members including PAs, an MD and a patient or two....not just nurses, CNAs or students. Doesn't really matter WHY she joined.

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Specializes in ICU,CCU,CVICU,SICU.
AN has a wide variety of members including PAs, an MD and a patient or two....not just nurses, CNAs or students. Doesn't really matter WHY she joined.

Well...it doesn't "MATTER" per say, but I'm still curious to understand why one would join a profession-based website different from your own unless you were aspiring to change career and looking for insight.

As I said in my previous post, I am just my normal curious self..... :D

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Specializes in ICU/Critical Care.

Mmmhmmm sure. In her profile, it says she's a nursing student.

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Specializes in Emergency Dept. Trauma. Pediatrics.
I thought only nurses, or nursing student were on this site...So your post made me curious: Are you in health care at all?

If not, would you mind sharing why you joined a nursing site?

No judgment implied, honest! Just pure curiosity.....

B-

I start nursing school this August, I have spent the past few years doing my Nursing Pre Reqs. I joined the site because a lot of searches I was doing kept bringing me here and than I saw all the resources and helpful hands on information that was here, I finally decided to actually make an account last month but was reading here for a while before hand.

I don't think someone should be berated for asking, not everyone can handle dealing with things that nurses and other professions have to deal with. IMO it doesn't make them any less of a person. Bravo for them to ask and find out and decide rather than to jump into something and drop out because they realize it's not their thing. It seems like a few of the posts in this thread display a lot of hostility for the person to even ask such a thing. Like I said before, as a non nurse, their are a lot of misconceptions out there of a Nurses role, you can't expect a non nurse to fully know what all goes into being a nurse.

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Specializes in Emergency Dept. Trauma. Pediatrics.
Well...it doesn't "MATTER" per say, but I'm still curious to understand why one would join a profession-based website different from your own unless you were aspiring to change career and looking for insight.

As I said in my previous post, I am just my normal curious self..... :D

I don't believe I stated anywhere that I have no desire to join the medical profession. So I am not sure where you would assume that I joined here with not having any thing to do with health care???

If I were debating being a social worker and I had a few questions about the pros and cons of the profession I would go to a place with many social workers and ask them. Would seem like common sense to me.

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Specializes in ICU,CCU,CVICU,SICU.
I don't believe I stated anywhere that I have no desire to join the medical profession. So I am not sure where you would assume that I joined here with not having any thing to do with health care???

If I were debating being a social worker and I had a few questions about the pros and cons of the profession I would go to a place with many social workers and ask them. Would seem like common sense to me.

I think you mentioned not being a nurse in one of your posts, and the fact that from an external point of view like yours, the role of a nurse wasn't clear etc....That's where my assumption came from. And unlike TurnLeftSide, I didn't go check your profile, so I didn't know that you were about to start your nursing studies.

I didn't realize that such an innocent question would warranty so much attention!

In all honesty, I just thought that you were someone in no way related to the profession and It made me wonder what could prompt someone to join this site if not for the benefit of a peer's community or the need to get some insider information for career orientation- Obviously, my assumption was wrong- but had it been right, I still didn't mean anything by it more than sheer curiosity.

About the person whom started the thread, I too have reacted too strongly...However, you might agree that the questions were out of context and could be perceived either as a negative opinion of the role of a nurse or a "sick interest" for gore details....Had I understood that those were the questions of someone considering joining the profession, I would have answered differently.

So for this poster, as for me, there is indeed nothing wrong with asking :chuckle

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A hundred years ago when I was a teenager, I was riding a city bus and overheard, what was to me at the time, a shocking conversation.

I overheard and elderly man yell his companion that he had been very constipated during his recent hospital stay.

Here is what the the man said (to the best of my recollection)-

"I just couldn't go and it was so uncomfortable. They gave me laxatives, suppositories, and an enema. None of it worked. Finally, the nurse was able to dig it out with her hands."

I remember being so horrified! :eek:

I thought "There is no way nurses really do that!"

Little did I realize that in a few short years, I'd be doing it myself- and not really minding it at all.

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Specializes in Emergency Dept. Trauma. Pediatrics.
I think you mentioned not being a nurse in one of your posts, and the fact that from an external point of view like yours, the role of a nurse wasn't clear etc....That's where my assumption came from. And unlike TurnLeftSide, I didn't go check your profile, so I didn't know that you were about to start your nursing studies.

I didn't realize that such an innocent question would warranty so much attention!

In all honesty, I just thought that you were someone in no way related to the profession and It made me wonder what could prompt someone to join this site if not for the benefit of a peer's community or the need to get some insider information for career orientation- Obviously, my assumption was wrong- but had it been right, I still didn't mean anything by it more than sheer curiosity.

About the person whom started the thread, I too have reacted too strongly...However, you might agree that the questions were out of context and could be perceived either as a negative opinion of the role of a nurse or a "sick interest" for gore details....Had I understood that those were the questions of someone considering joining the profession, I would have answered differently.

So for this poster, as for me, there is indeed nothing wrong with asking :chuckle

I did, I believe I also said in that post that after finding out what a nurse really does it didn't change my mind about becoming one ;)

I must say, this site has taught me a lot, opened my eyes a lot about what to expect when I get into nursing and that is great. It has scared me a little but not enough to change my mind, but I am glad that I found this place and got the foresight I did before I spend even more money persuing a nursing degree to find out it was totally not what I was expecting and not wanting to continue. This site has cleared up any misconceptions I might have had.

BTW I am totally into gore, not sure if "into" is the right word but I am always watching gore movies, crime scene photos, my first dream was to be a crime scene forensic detective, *before all the CSI shows and stuff* or work in the FBI, Coronar office, Crime scene photographer, well you get the point. Having a child at 16 changes my plans a bit, but anyway, my point was, Poop, vomit, pee .... the stuff that the poster was asking about, I would never consider gore stuff or what the "gore seeker" would be looking for. IMO I would consider gore as blood and guts and stuff.

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Specializes in Pediatrics, ER.
Have to be honest I find nothing more rewarding that cleaning a patient who is soiled and making them comfortable.

God give me the strength to be as compassionate as you are. Poop and vomit are two of my least favorite things about nursing.

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Specializes in Emergency Dept. Trauma. Pediatrics.
A hundred years ago when I was a teenager, I was riding a city bus and overheard, what was to me at the time, a shocking conversation.

I overheard and elderly man yell his companion that he had been very constipated during his recent hospital stay.

Here is what the the man said (to the nest of my recollection)-

"I just couldn't go and it was so uncomfortable. They gave me laxatives, suppositories, and an enema. None of it worked. Finally, the nurse was able to dig it out with her hands."

I remember being so horrified! :eek:

I thought "There is no way nurses really do that!"

Little did I realize that in a few short years, I'd be doing it myself- and not really minding it at all.

I was horrified to take MicroBiology, I was convinced I would hate the class and be so grossed out because so much of what gives me the heebie jeebies sp? is what we would be doing. I turned out finding the class really interesting and thought about changing my path to working for the CDC LOL

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