HELP! I DON"T WANT TO GO THROUGH CNA first...

SoulShine75 · Feb 5, 2007

In order to get to where you want to go...seems like babies....you have to go through the rest of it. You have to learn about adults before you can learn about newborns. Doing bedside care is a big role in nursing and you'll be wiping plenty of booty in clinical...young and old. I hope you make the right decision.

lauralassie · Feb 5, 2007

i'm just wondering what are some of the tasks specifically that "horrified" you?? what have you heard? are these from the course coordinator or a lecturer or just your fellow classmates? also, what kind of things did you dream of doing?? please let us all know so we can help you one way or the other. i personally dreamed of being a nurse since i was 4 years old and cuddling little ones and making the sick feel better was a large part of that dream. nothing has changed. i still love cuddles - now it's just from the young,middle-aged and my elders.... i still like making the 'sick' feel better but there are many ways to do that. cleaning up poop can be a way that my dream can help another (imagine you or your kin pooped themselves and had to sit in it....doesn't make you feel good) i remember one clinical placement where i had explosive poop splatter to clean off a pt and a wall. as a walked down the hallway with a plastic apron,plastic booties,gloves,goggles and with sponge & bucket in hand ... i thought to myself - i am living the dream!! ... ok, cleaning up poop wasn't quite
what i had in mind at age 4 but working as a nurse was! always look at the bigger picture! many one this thread has said that cleaning up poop is a large part of the job... this is true. but the largest part of the job is figuring out what you can and cant do, and ways to cope the the gross stuff. these things may include cleaning up poop, but you can learn ways to cope and still get the job done. most nurses have their dislikes - e.g sputum, vomit... and many more but they cope because of good training and coworkers. if it's the smell, put peppermint oil on the inside of your nose or on the mask and the smell is diminished! sometimes... we nurses can get highly critical of each other, i just hope that we can band together as professionals and take a positive approach to help enable this person to either achieve their goal. this does mean that you (author) will have to face some truths of the job and knock down the unrealistic fantasies of hollywood, but you can still havyour dreams!

now that's what i'm talkin about. :yelclap: :beer: :bow: :cheers: :smokin: thanks for your support of a potential nurse. the op will find her way through nursing just like the rest of us did. hope other people don't think i'm some kind of mealy mouthed nurse who can't stand up for myself. cause i'm not, i've been doing critical care /level 1 trauma for many many years. i can stand up the the best of them and slam another nurse down hard when i want to , but, i also know when to show support and an opportunity to help a person grow.

ANnot4me · Feb 5, 2007

The original poster was being honest and I appreciate that. I entered nursing to become a psych nurse and thought I would endure al the gross stuff (I found it all horriying too) to reach my goal. 10 years later, I have yet to practice in psych (freaks me out) and have worked in medicine, ICU, ED and briefly in nursing homes. I have dealt with some stuff that I thought would put me off food forever. But, as one poster said, if you focus on the person and how sad and horrifying the whole experience is for them, a little poo ain't nothin'.

lookingforward · Feb 5, 2007

...someone's bitter! so a person cannot dream of specializing in a certain field, like pediatrics? i am just being honest and i'm sure even some of the top nurses, which i have had the pleasure of knowing, do not miss changing adult diapers! please lighten up! this message goes out to edrnmike...

lookingforward · Feb 5, 2007

thank you lauralassie! i guess i just envisioned a prettier picture. (one that does involve caring for people, young and old) but not so much as changing briefs all day long! thank you for the kind words and understanding my honesty.

lookingforward · Feb 5, 2007

thanks for sticking up crazypremed!

jimthorp · Feb 5, 2007

My CNA experience has come in very helpful as a RN.

As a nurse I sometimes wish I had CNA experience. When charge nurse I have played the role of CNA several times.

Just yesterday I did a lot of butt wiping, not full CNA role. One occurrance was during lunch hour. I joked with the CNA assisting me and told her that if I had an extra hand I could be killing two birds with one stone by eating my sandwich at the same time. The resident and CNA got a good laugh.

I had to set a PRN RN straight yesterday. She was passing noon meds and told me so and so needs to be changed and she could not find anyone. Duh, it was lunch time, we had 4 CNA's on the floor and we have 4 feeds. I don't remember what I said exactly but she immediately locked the med cart and tended to the resident's needs...I assisted her. She later appologized to me saying on some units it's a "no no" for nurses to do that kind of work. I said "not under my watch"!

The premise of the OP concerns me in that it appears she would be one of those nurses that think incontinence care is below them and would refuse to do it.

KellNY, RN · Feb 5, 2007

I had to set a PRN RN straight yesterday. She was passing noon meds and told me so and so needs to be changed and she could not find anyone. Duh, it was lunch time, we had 4 CNA's on the floor and we have 4 feeds. I don't remember what I said exactly but she immediately locked the med cart and tended to the resident's needs...I assisted her. She later appologized to me saying on some units it's a "no no" for nurses to do that kind of work. I said "not under my watch"!

I hope you werent short with her. i've done agency, and I've been yelled at (yes, yelled at!) for doing "CNA work" (changes, linens, feeds, etc) because their rational was "Why are we paying you $28 an hour [i was an LPN at the time, not RN] to do work we could be paying $10.50 an hour to do!?!?". So I understand her hesitation.

jimthorp · Feb 5, 2007

I hope you werent short with her. i've done agency, and I've been yelled at (yes, yelled at!) for doing "CNA work" (changes, linens, feeds, etc) because their rational was "Why are we paying you $28 an hour [i was an LPN at the time, not RN] to do work we could be paying $10.50 an hour to do!?!?". So I understand her hesitation.

I cannot tell you if she thought I was short with her or not. I know she respects me even though I am a lowly LPN, LOL. I don't hold much weight in everyone's interpretation of whether or not I am short or rude as I have been acused of being rude by simply issuing a directive, within their main job desciption, to someone. Far too many adults have a grade school view of their boss giving them directives.

My facility does not use agency nurses. We hire part-time nurses.

Quickbeam, BSN, RN · Feb 5, 2007

I don't have an opinion on it as a requirement but being a CNA before I got my BSN was the best thing I'd done. It helped me deal with the realities and to keep a patient focus. I learned to work efficiently and to multi-task. You'd be amazed at where you'll find lots of poop! Saw more than my share in my years in psych nursing. Rehab. Brain trauma pediatrics.

I also want to echo a comment made upthread about the advertised image of nursing. So many people in my class had hopelessly sanitized images of nursing. Most never made it to one year of professional practice. I'm the only one left who is still a practicing nurse. Maybe some realistic pre-req experience isn't a bad idea.

RazorbackRN, BSN, RN · Feb 5, 2007

This is really not to put any profession down but I've dreamed of being a nurse for soooo long, now only to discover that before entering my LVN program, I have to get the CNA title first! I am horrified of having to do some of the tasks described! This is not whaat I dreamed of all these years, I was thinking more along the lines of changing newborn diapers, not old folk diapers! CAN ANYONE BRING ANY CONSOLATION?

I can assure you that most of these "old folk" individulas that you refer to don't want to have to have their "diaper" changed, anymore that you want to do it.

RNsRWe, ASN, RN · Feb 5, 2007

I don't have an opinion on it as a requirement but being a CNA before I got my BSN was the best thing I'd done. It helped me deal with the realities and to keep a patient focus. I learned to work efficiently and to multi-task. You'd be amazed at where you'll find lots of poop! Saw more than my share in my years in psych nursing. Rehab. Brain trauma pediatrics.
I also want to echo a comment made upthread about the advertised image of nursing. So many people in my class had hopelessly sanitized images of nursing. Most never made it to one year of professional practice. I'm the only one left who is still a practicing nurse. Maybe some realistic pre-req experience isn't a bad idea.

I remember a former classmate who, on the first day of clinicals in fundamentals, asked if she could wear a mask when in the hospital. When asked if she had a cold she didn't want to pass on, she said that no, she wasn't sick, but the PATIENTS were sick and she didn't want to catch their germs! Yessir, she thought it entirely reasonable that she enter the average patient's room with an isolation mask on and proceed about her assessments :uhoh21: She also made gagging faces behind patients' backs when other students were changing them or whatever.

In case you're curious, she didn't make it through that first semester