Not a poop or pee nurse?!?

[thumperRN]

Okay, just have to vent a little here. I was working the other day at a fairly new job (which I like a lot), and I was working with another nurse that I haven't shared very many shifts with. She is probably in her lower to mid 40's and has been an RN for about 1 year. She has always been nice in all the times that I have talked to her which really have been limited as we generally work opposite days of eachother. Anyways, one of my pt's had been incont of urine and BM and needed to be cleaned up, so since she was sitting at the nurse's station, I asked her if she would come help me. When I told her what I needed help with, she informed me that she didn't go to school to be a poop or pee nurse!!!!! HEELLLOOOO???? I am an RN too and if someone is laying in a pile of poo, I'll be changing them!! I couldn't believe she said that!! Evidently, this isn't the only time. One of the LPN's on my shift said she told her the same thing. I am so disgusted because this isn't the impression that I originally had of her. What the he** is wrong with some people!!!!?? I'm not chalking this one up as "she was just having a bad day" - I think this is actually her opinion. Please tell me this is not the attitude they're teaching in nursing school - I know it was not what I was taught. :angryfire :angryfire :angryfire :angryfire :angryfire

[angel337, MSN, RN]

there are more nurses than you would ever imagine that have this attitude. nurses that hate bedside care should simply do nonclinical nursing. i'm not thrilled about diarrhea, vomit, and urine either, but neither is the patient. i precept new nurses and nursing students all the time and everytime i have had to encounter a total care patient the first thing i hear is " don't you guys have aides/techs do that?" and i say " you are the nurse..you are the aide, the tech, the housekeeper, secretary, dietician and in some instances the physician":specs:

[bethem]

Or if she has a pt with ostomies???

Shudder... I'd much rather clean up poop than deal with the cleanest, most pristine ostomy ever. I have such a thing about them, they make me squirk. BUT if I have a patient with one, I deal with it and act professionally to ease the patient's discomfort. No one chooses to poo themselves, to vomit (well, normally), or to develop a condition which requires a stoma. If I need help one day, the last thing I want is someone telling me how helping me is beneath them.

[JoeTheNurse]

In the hospital I work we are generally staffed about 4 pt's to each nurse. We perform total care on these pt's as we don't utilize as many aides. I think she is mad that she doesn't have an aide to delegate these responsibilities to. Come to think of it, I think most of her pt's "refuse" baths too. I just think that she feels these responsibilities are beneath her. I don't always have time to give every pt I'm taking care of a bath in a day (depends on procedures, admissions, dimissals, you get the picture), but what a prime opportunity to do a good, total head-to-toe assessment. Anyway, next time I won't be so taken aback - something will be said. There is just no excuse!!

Where can I get a job with a nurse/patient ratio of 1 to 4?

This nurse would not get away with this with our team.

[gonzo1, ASN, RN]

A few of the nurses I work with will do anything within their power to not have to put a foley in. I have come into work to find pts who have been waiting 4 hours for a foley. I can't imagine what their response would be to poop. They would freak.

[Plagueis]

OK people, I'm wondering what hospital's you work at. I currently work as a CNA ( I am awaiting my test date to take boards) and I can tell you that very few nurses I work with are "pee or poop nurses" or even call light nurses for that matter. They would rather do laps around the floor looking for a CNA to give the patient a pillow, change their brief, assist them to the bedside commode or heaven forbid get them some ice water. This is my first hospital job so I thought this was the norm. Everyone I talk to from my class who were CNA's said the same thing the nurses at their hospitals. I wonder if the CNA's that you work with would agree that you are willing to "lend a helping hand" or do they see you as "lap nurses" running around looking for a CNA to do the "dirty work"......

Unfortunately, I have also worked with some "no-pee-or-poop nurses" and the "I-don't-answer-call-lights" nurses. Some of these nurses have actually told me that they became nurses so they wouldn't have to deal with these issues, because that's what CNAs are for, and that they are there to pass meds, and not to toilet people or answer call lights.

[Marie_LPN, RN, LPN, RN]

Poop or pee isn't med-surg exclusive. It's everywhere, be it literal or figurative, or even in the words of the voluntarily uninformed.

[Nurset1981]

I was taught that you treat your patients with the same respect that you would treat your mother, so unless you would leave your mother lying in a pile of feces....I've had numerous nurses say things like that to me..I actually had a nurse sit there and eat her dinner while I was struggling to clean up a totally dependant, obese woman who couldn'h help herself. Patients come first. Always. If you can't handle a little feces, get out of the bedpan.

[traumaRUs, MSN, APRN]

Poop and pee are all around us. Try to put yourself in the patient's bed...you wouldn't let your own parent or grandparent or spouse or child to lie in it, would you? So...you get up and go change the pt. Easy work and everyone can do it.

[Marie_LPN, RN, LPN, RN]

If you can't handle a little feces, get out of the bedpan.

Now there's a great idea for a bumpersticker!

[Roy Fokker, BSN, RN]

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[Logan]

Hi,

Try to put yourself in the patient's bed...you wouldn't let your own parent or grandparent or spouse or child to lie in it, would you?

I believe this is an example of "empathy" - something we nurses should strive for. :)

Brav-o!

I signed up to take care of human beings - be they lying in pools of their own urine or pools of their own blood.

Thanks,

Matthew

[meintheUSA]

Working in LTC as a CNA, I was later admitted to hospital for heart surgery. When I was moved from ICU to Cardiac Care, they would assign a CNA, LPN, and RN to each patient. The first day there, the lpn came in for my bed bath and skin care. I was totally confused.... In LTC, the CNA were the ONLY person to provide hands on care to the residents. I often overly expressed my gratitude to the super LPNs and RNs for their total care of ALL my needs. What a wonderful difference this made for a wonderful experience as a patient.