False Expectations?

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Just wanted to know if others thought that too many nursing student's expectations of nursing are maybe jaded by the nurses on ER or other t.v. shows? We are almost done with our first set of clinicals, and one girl dropped out of the program last week because as she said "I'm sick of seeing BM and lifting and moving pts. This is not what I expected of nursing." :angryfire :confused: What did she think--we were going to go in, fresh into nursing school & clinicals to boot, and start giving medications? Call me simple but I love when the family members thank me for doing whatever I did to help their sick loved one. Not to mention the fact that we have also learned trach care, PEG tube flushing, NG tube insertion, and lots of other things hands on. Guess its just different strokes for different folks.

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I fully expect to wipe my fair share of bottoms my first year or so..

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It is the "little things" that aren't so little!!! IF we didn't clean them up, if we didn't turn them frequently, if we didn't care about those things -- we would be awful nurses!!!

The gal who dropped out was probably doing a bunch of people a geat service -- I wouldn't want someone to care for me, or my grandmother, who didn't realize how important doing those things is.

Another tidbit -- if I may.... when I got my RN degree, I was taught that I was in NO WAY above doing those things for patients (which many Rn's seem to think --"Let the aide do it") That degree simply means that I am responsible for those activities (whether I do them personally or delegate them) in addition to the other responsibilities that go with the RN. It burns me when nurses ( Rn, LPN, whomever set themselves up as being "above" that kind of work!):angryfire

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if she had spent some time on the boards here, maybe she would have had a better idea! :wink2:

i'm sure the media must have some influence. i wanted to be a lawyer in the worst way, thanks to shows like perry mason, l.a. law, and law & order. then i actually met lawyers, heard all their *****ing and moaning and realized there was no way in the world i would ever do that. the payoff didn't seem worth the aggravation, to me. just not my bag, baby.

topcat

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Yeah, we had this pretty little prissy thing in my nursing class, you know, former homecoming queen, that at the end of our first semester said, out loud in front of the instructors, I swear, "eeewwwww! I don't like doing all these poopy things." She quit, we were glad. I'm sure she thought she'd get through school and become arm candy for a resident surgeon, but alas, the "poopy things" got in the way of her aspirations. :rotfl:

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:rotfl: Ya just gotta hate it when those annoying "poopy things" mess up such lofty, noble goals!

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I have a question...how DO you all deal with the BM's, messy or otherwise? Do you wear gloves? How do you deal with the smell? Do you just get use to it? I have children and animals so I am use to smelling and cleaning up poop but I want to know when it comes to other people who aren't your family, how do you deal with it?

Thanks so much in advance for your answers!!

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Yes!!! You DEFINATELY wear gloves!!! With the HUGE number of diseases that can be spread through contact with any body fluids, you don the gloves!!!! I guess you get used to the smell.... sort of, but I have to admit that there are still some rather ripe ones that make me gag! I remember when I first sztarted working as an aide --- I would pray that I wouldn't hurl all over someone while I was cleaning them up!!

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Oh know missmercy..that will be me too!!! Too bad you can't wear those surgical masks?? That might help huh? Is that allowed? So how much do you have to deal with the BM stuff? Like the entire time during the clinicals?:rolleyes:

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I have a question...how DO you all deal with the BM's, messy or otherwise? Answer: Very carefully

Do you wear gloves? :stone Ummmm....yeah: gloves, plastic apron too

How do you deal with the smell? :stone you really don't...after a while I guess you just get over it.

Do you just get use to it? I'm not sure about anyone else but after the first two clinicals, didn't really bother me much.

I have children and animals so I am use to smelling and cleaning up poop but I want to know when it comes to other people who aren't your family, how do you deal with it?

Thanks so much in advance for your answers!!

Hopefully I've answered your questions (see above). Trust me, its not like cleaning up after a child or an animal, but you certainly don't want someone lying in it if they can't clean themselves so you do what ya gotta.

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Specializes in L&D.
Oh know missmercy..that will be me too!!! Too bad you can't wear those surgical masks?? That might help huh? Is that allowed? So how much do you have to deal with the BM stuff? Like the entire time during the clinicals?:rolleyes:

I'm finishing on my second out of five clinical semesters and so far haven't had any "poop" to clean up. I'm sure I will though.

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Specializes in Emergency Dept, M/S.

I'm not an RN yet, but have cleaned other people up. You just have to know that it is unpleasant, and yes a little bit humiliating, for that clean-ee as it is for clean-er. No one enjoys it, but it's a "must do" task that goes with the job sometimes.

It's amazing that something as simple as that would make someone quit nursing school. She must have been a real primadonna!! I take it she doesn't have kids??? :rotfl: My mother always used to say that changing poopy diapers didn't smell bad when it was your own child, but I begged to differ when changing my kids after I'd had a few bowls of Cream of Broccoli soup! Then they were just.....................stinky, stanky, stunky little cherubs of gas and poo!

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