How much poop/puke/cleaning of bodily fluids is there in nursing school?

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Hey all. I'm starting in September and just want to know what I should be preparing myself mentally for. How much poop/puke/pee etc is involved? Is it a daily basis thing or just once in a while?

I'm not totally averse to it, just want to start getting prepared. =)

Specializes in Trauma, Orthopedics.
Thank you for being specific, KKahn =)

I'm just wondering- I want to be a PMHNP and bedside care is not exactly my dream career. So I just wanted a sense of how much of it truly goes on.. I have no one in health care in my family and I appreciate the details you are giving me so I know what to expect!

FYI....Bedside won't be the only place you see pee and poop....Mental Health is where you get the patients that start eating it and throwing it at you! :roflmao:

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FYI....Bedside won't be the only place you see pee and poop....Mental Health is where you get the patients that start eating it and throwing it at you! :roflmao:

Ha. I want to work as an outpatient PMHNP, possibly opening up my own practice or working within someone else's one day. Or, I'd like to work in a substance abuse clinic. But yes.. I would like to get inpatient psych RN experience first to see how bad things can get.

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Specializes in Trauma, Orthopedics.

Experience will be the only thing to get you there...so just go in with the mindset that I can happen all day, every day. You'll be seeing a whole different kind of sick that you never knew existed. And substance abuse? Talk about projectile vomiting/diarrhea.

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Experience will be the only thing to get you there...so just go in with the mindset that I can happen all day, every day. You'll be seeing a whole different kind of sick that you never knew existed. And substance abuse? Talk about projectile vomiting/diarrhea.

Sure, but I'm talking more about an outpatient clinic. I don't think that outpatient PMHNPs clean poop. I don't even think inpatient NPs do... not every single job that involves patient care also involves cleaning poop. I know that for a fact! I talked to multiple psych NPs before going down this route and talked about what their daily lives were like.

I will work for a year as a psych RN because I want to/am interested in doing that.. but it's technically not required. Many PMHNP schools will accept applicants still in their senior year of BSN. Just keep that in mind so that you are spreading accurate information. Anything else is biased.

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Cleaning up all that isn't the funnest part of going to nursing school, but IMO those people are the sickest usually.. And the sicker they are, you might even get to do a certain skill like inserting an NG tube. I have done it quite a few times (cleaning up poop and pee). It does not bother me at all now. It never has bothered me to the point of getting sick. The only thing is, I cannot smell vomit.. Lol I can see someone throw up all day long but cannot stand the smell. I hate seeing people be incontinent because I can't imagine how I would feel if I were them pooping and peeing all over myself. I know it would humiliate me, so I try my best to be understanding and compassionate when it comes to that stuff.

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Specializes in Trauma, Orthopedics.
Sure, but I'm talking more about an outpatient clinic. I don't think that outpatient PMHNPs clean poop. I don't even think inpatient NPs do... not every single job that involves patient care also involves cleaning poop. I know that for a fact! I talked to multiple psych NPs before going down this route and talked about what their daily lives were like.

I will work for a year as a psych RN because I want to/am interested in doing that.. but it's technically not required. Many PMHNP schools will accept applicants still in their senior year of BSN. Just keep that in mind so that you are spreading accurate information. Anything else is biased.

What on earth? All I'm advising is to be prepared. My first patient in nursing school had C. Diff. Thank you for the heads up, though I am well aware of what NPs do/don't do. But like I said, experience is what gets you there. And if you go into being an NP feeling as if you are above anyone else when it comes to the "dirty work" of basic patient care, you won't last (or really be a very good NP). That is all.

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Specializes in Pain, critical care, administration, med.

If you really need to ask this question you need to think about the career regardless of whether you want to go into psych. Mentally ill patients have many habits that are I appealing as well as many health issues in addition to their psych problems. I have been a nurse for 30 yrs and never had a patient that specifically planned to poop, per, vomit, hemorrhage, or die. All these things are sheerly a toss of the coin!

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Specializes in Medical Surgical.

To directly answer your question of is this an everyday thing, it completely depends on your patient. Some may not be nauseous, but some may be. Some might be able to take care of their own ADL's, some may not. I don't think their is a definitive answer to that question. I can tell you that some days I had 1 on 1 patient care on my Med-Surg rotation and some days I saw multiple patients and did focused assessments. For example if they all had a circulatory issue I would focus on the body systems affected and the disease process instead of doing daily cares. I have volunteered at the ED as a student nurse and helped change a crappy diaper just bc the nurse was so busy. It was not in my description as a volunteer but it was helpful. I don't think any of us like poop or vomit but sometimes ya just gotta clean it. Not being sarcastic at all, just telling the truth.

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Specializes in critcal care, CRNA.

I knew this would explode. Now you are lazy and shouldn't go into nursing. Lol.

I personally never saw an NP clean up a pt. but that's just me. The OP never said that they would not clean up poop but would rather not. Who would want to clean poop? No one! Give them a break already.

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Specializes in Pedi.
Okay. I'm just asking about school though. So, every day in nursing clinicals in RN school you clean up poop?

It depends on which clinical you're in and on what floor. If you're on an oncology floor, expect to see vomit multiple times/day. You will also deal with your fair share of urine because oncology patients will likely be on strict I&O and may need their urine tested regularly. My med surg clinicals were vascular surgery and cardiothoracic step-down. Patients were, by and large, ambulatory and continent in those areas.

In OB, if you're doing L&D, you'll see your fair share of poop because most women will have a bowel movement during delivery and, of course, you've got other bodily fluids going on there. If you're doing post-partum, the majority of women will clean themselves. Peds it could go either way... you could have an ambulatory 4 year old who uses the toilet or you could have a quadriplegic incontinent teenager. Psych it could also go either way. I never encountered ANY bodily fluids during my psych rotation on an acute unit that was mostly filled with failed suicide attempts and people with bipolar or schizophrenia who decided to stop taking their meds. Community is another one that could go either way, theoretically... at clinics or in home health, you may be asked to guaiac stool or test urine or you may never deal with any bodily fluid. I never deal with poop in my home health job and deal with vomit about once/week... I have a few babies who throw up on me every time I visit them.

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Specializes in Emergency, Telemetry, Transplant.

Its impossible to give an exact amount. I don't remember an instant in school where I had to clean up BM or emesis, but, then again, I was a CNA so that was just "another day at the office"--in fact, if I only had one incontinent episode I had to clean up, that was a very very light day compared with the LTC facility.

On the other hand, based on the luck of the draw you might have a pt who is in the hospital from a SNF who is totally incontinent of B/B. You might be assigned to a pt with gastroparesis who has frequent bouts of nausea/vomiting. You might get a C diff pt. Then again, you may get none of the above. There really is no way of predicting.

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Specializes in Trauma, Orthopedics.
I knew this would explode. Now you are lazy and shouldn't go into nursing. Lol.

I personally never saw an NP clean up a pt. but that's just me. The OP never said that they would not clean up poop but would rather not. Who would want to clean poop? No one! Give them a break already.

I personally don't think she's lazy or anything like that....I just think it's rather naive to think you'll be avoiding it by being in any one specialty. I have psych nurses in my family that tell me the awesome stories of poop under the hand rails in the hallway, poop flying across the hall, body fluid everywhere....you get the picture. It just happens. I just think it's silly to say "oh well I want to do this so tell me what I want to hear." I don't know....it's health care. It's gonna happen. And nothing in life is certain, that's for sure! Like the OP, I went into nursing school with my eyes wide and glowing at being a PMHNP (previous degree and experience in psych, turned down PhD programs for nursing school), and I've since changed my mind! Anything can happen so it's best to be prepared and ready!

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