Don't wanna always give baths, clean up feces, etc., where to work?

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In clinicals we just give baths, clean up poop and puke, and feed patients. I honestly want nothing to do with this once I'm a nurse, so, where/what floors can I work on as a new grad, in order to avoid this? I do have an interest in Psych nursing.

actually, i find it extremely helpful to see/smell feces, urine, blood and vomit.

they are an integral part of my assessments.

leslie

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actually, i find it extremely helpful to see/smell feces, urine, blood and vomit.

they are an integral part of my assessments.

leslie

Exactly.

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To the OP before I started working as a caregiver I was afraid and I didn't think I could handle it. Now I give showers, clean up poop off of people, carpets, and occasionally myself, 52 hours a week. The smell doesn't even bother me anymore

I'm so over poop

You have to think of it this way though; someone is willing to share their most private and intimate self with you, to be completely exposed and vulnerable to a stranger. How incredible is that? That trust and faith in you is something you should honor and cherish. Not many other professions can lay claim to that.

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Specializes in Telemetry, Oncology, Progressive Care.
I know I'll get flamed for this, but I don't think a RN should be giving baths and cleaning poo. You all are highly skilled professionals and leaving those tasks to a CNA would free up more of your time (hopefully) to take care of other tasks. Can't CNAs give a report of poo and vomitus? And I also think (in everyone's dreams), CNAs should ALWAYS be of staff to handle these tasks. Nurses are well paid compared to some other professions right of your school and it is a waste to resources to force RNs to do these tasks.

Flame away!! :lol2:

Ready for some more flames.

If I am in a room and know a patient needs to be cleaned up I just do it. If shouldn't be beneath you to do it just because you are a nurse. If it was they wouldn't have you doing it in nursing school, now would they? You think they teach you this just to kill time?

How horrible it would be for me to let a pt sit in poo while I go and find the aide to do it. The only time I will have a patient sit in poo is if it will put their safety at risk to try and stand up and they are a 2 person assist. I hurry up and find someone to come and help me. Really it takes a couple of minutes to get it cleaned up and then you can move on to your next task.

Nobody likes doing it. I guess I'm not willing to let my patient lay there in pee/poop and risk having some skin breakdown that they didn't previously have.

I can't get over it. I am just horrified by some peoples thoughts on this whole thing. Would you really want to lay there while the nurse went to get someone else to clean you up because she thought she was too good to clean you up. As for vomit I try to get that away from the patient asap. All that's going to do is just make them more nauseous.

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Specializes in Day Surgery, Agency, Cath Lab, LTC/Psych.
I know I'll get flamed for this, but I don't think a RN should be giving baths and cleaning poo. You all are highly skilled professionals and leaving those tasks to a CNA would free up more of your time (hopefully) to take care of other tasks. Can't CNAs give a report of poo and vomitus? And I also think (in everyone's dreams), CNAs should ALWAYS be of staff to handle these tasks. Nurses are well paid compared to some other professions right of your school and it is a waste to resources to force RNs to do these tasks.

Flame away!! :lol2:

Yes, CNAs can and do report BMs and emesis but that does not mean that nurses shouldn't be involved in cleaning patients up. So much of a nurse's assessment is based on bodily fluids. Poop, urine and sputum have so much value to a diagnosis that I would never delegate an assessment of such to a CNA. I need to personally know what it smells like, looks like, its amount, its texture, consistency, etc, etc, etc. Of course many CNAs have a good assessment of c-diff or a GI bleed but I don't want to call a physician and say, "My CNA thinks his poop looks like is blood in it but I didn't look at it because I'm an RN." I want to know for myself. This is what I get paid to do.

An attitude of, "I am so above this" really can be perceived by the patient. Imagine if you were a patient who had soiled yourself and your nurse said, "Just a minute. The CNA will have to clean you up. I don't do that. I'm an RN." Patients should never be made to feel worse about their situation than they already do.

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Specializes in Jack of all trades, and still learning.
However, I have a friend that is an RN in a major city and she hasn't touched a bedpan in 15 years....management doesn't WANT them to give baths, etc...b/c they have extensive CNA staffing, and they want them to utililize their time doing other things.

Yes, it is great to have CNA staffing. We usually have one (patient care assistant) on our floor a shift, and every little thing that person does is so appreciated. I call them the 'quiet achievers' because noone sees what they do, but if you don't have them there, then you find out what they do do!

But I don't agree with not touching a bedpan, or attending a wash etc. Yeah, I hate dealing with it too, but as I said previously, it is important for assessment, as well as patient physical and psychological comfort. It is everyone's responsibility, not just the LPN (EN in our country), CNA etc.

In an aside, where I work we have Aboriginal Health Workers in our hospitals. They are great because they bring a cultural aspect to our role; they do the job of an EN as well, and like nurses and doctors and physios et al they must be licensed to practice. In the remote communities they almost have an RN role. One AHW told me how an RN had left a patient in a dirty bed, and actually paged the AHW to come and clean her up! Made me hang my head in shame...

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Specializes in Trauma, Teaching.
WHERE have you been where a doctor deals with bodily functions and fluids? I have yet to see a doctor do anthing except step back and call for a nurse when anything needs fixing or cleaning up.

In my ER the docs mostly do their own disimpactions. I've even seen a few slide the odd bedpan in. We're a level 3 trauma center, so it isn't like we aren't all busy! And while we are log rolling the C-spine trauma patient, the rectal temp just might get taken as well by a doc.

Too many complications possible with a disimpaction for anyone but an MD or nurse to be doing it.

To the OP, these are such a small part of the day, that if you think this is all we do (although we do doo very well:lol2:); well, you still have no idea what real nursing is all about. Just a piece of the puzzle for a shift.

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Specializes in Jack of all trades, and still learning.
I'm not "above" poop, I just don't think I could be happy in a job where is was an everyday reality. I've cleaned up my share during nursing school as a student and as a tech at a regular psychiatric facility.

Thats the difference I think. You've done it, you are not 'above' it, but you've recognised that you find it hard to cope with and you are going somewhere where you think you may be more useful. I wish you well...

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Specializes in Community Health, Med-Surg, Home Health.

There are plenty of places, as other posters have presented. I can understand that this is not the greatest part of the job, but, think if you wish to be a nurse at all...really. I work in a clinic, and, occasionally, a patient soils on themselves, an occasional dressing change, etc. We have to do it.

If a nurse were to turn their nose at you, your parents, husband or child, how would you take it?

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Specializes in Med/Surg.
Would you really want to lay there while the nurse went to get someone else to clean you up because she thought she was too good to clean you up.

THANK YOU FOR SAYING THIS!!!!

How some nurses out there, and I stress the word "some", can have such a pompous attitude & little disregard for another person is beyond me. Why bother entering this profession then? Let others, who truly want to help out patients and care for them at their time of need, get admitted to the nursing programs &/or have the jobs. I mean, didn't we all learn while growing up to "Do onto others what you want done onto you". I pray to God that, if ever the day comes where I am dependant on others to care for me, I am NEVER treated like this.

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Specializes in home health, peds, case management.

while i agree that the crux of nursing is bedside/direct care, they are plenty of "sanitary" areas that do not involve direct care. the opinions that i see here are that cleaning up patients is part of being a nurse. so am i to infer that those of us who are not involved in that on a day to day basis are not "real" nurses?? i beg to differ....

the fact of the matter is that there are areas a nurse can work, and not routinely be confronted with bodily functions, and it is unfair to define your professional value by the amount of poop you sling.

that being said, i cleaned up my fair share of pee, poop, vomit, snot, blood and so on to get where i am today. case management is not an area for the new grad.

and even then...you never really get away from it.....just over a year ago, i had a new rn colleague eating lunch with us. as our group drifted back to the office, the two of us lagged behind...and i watched the blood drain out of her face, her cheeks filled up, and the vomit squirted between her fingers....right on to my shoes. so, since the rest of the group had no idea what was happening, i led her to the bathroom, and helped her clean up (bare-handed by the way, since you dont keep ppe in a business office) guess you can run, but you cant hide!!!

although i've strayed from my point, i think that everyone is doing a disservice to the op by so brazenly attacking her. remember that she is a student, does not have the benefit of having cleaned up countless piles of poop and puddles of pee. i doubt that any of the posters here did the happy dance the first time they were confronted with the challenge. why not show the girl a little support? if i were in her shoes, i might reconsider my career choice as well, not because of some pee and poop, but because of the response i got here.

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Specializes in Operating Room Nursing.

A lot of these posts are pretty harsh IMHO. I'm a wee bit fed up with older nurses rolling their eyes and muttering about young university trained nurses not being able to deal with the realities blah blah blah. Get over it. I suggest you remember how you felt when confronted with some of the more smellier aspects of nursing. They don't really expose you with this sort of thing when your training at uni and it can be a difficult thing to deal with.

With greatest respect though , if you wish to continue with your RN training then your going to have to learn to work with the smells etc. Maybe when you get to practice other more exciting skills such as drug medication, wounds dressings things might be more interesting.....

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