Long story short, my sister has decided that she wants to become a Psychiatric Nurse Practitioner. She has a master's in psych, and believes this will be an easy thing to achieve, but she just simply doesn't want to clean poop.
I do assist with peri care, sometimes with a tech, and sometimes because the tech is with another patient. It's not the biggest part of my job and it is not the worst part of my job. It gives me a chance to assess skin issues, to change any bandages that may be on the coccyx, and to let the patient know that I'm there no matter what reason they need me.
I tried to explain this to her, and she just doesn't 'get it'. I get this idea that becoming an NP is practically the same as a MD to her, and that worries me. She'll learn, I suppose. I just hope that she will understand that assisting a patient at a time when they can't even go to the bathroom by themselves is not a bad thing. It's not horrible to help someone. It's what we do.
I'm just bothered by it. Thoughts...comments? Ways to make her understand? all appreciated.
Thank you! Everyone keeps saying that she will not be able to avoid poop, and that psych patients throw feces. As an NP all she has to do is duck and call for someone to clean it up. I have NEVER seen an NP clean up a patient. If they do a skin check and the patient is soiled they just pull up the covers and send a nurse or aide in to clean them.
OK...she has psych background and wants to be a psych nurse. What is wrong with that? Why does one have to be a med/surg nurse and deal with poop to be considered "a real nurse"? She will have to deal with it some but really, it isn't a normal psych "issue" because most psych floors only take patients after they are medically stable. She can go directly into psych nursing out of school. Around here, the demand is so great that even GNs often get hired within two days of the interview and get paid more than a med/surg GN. They have their own problems. Why does "poop" even have to be a discussion point? And honestly, a lot of nurses avoid certain specialities to avoid certain things..."I don't do mucous"..."I don't do children"...and my personal favorite on the med/surg floor "I don't do psych diagnoses" And how do you avoid those when they exist in your med/surg patient. (Plenty of medical neglect here in my opinion when depression and anxiety are treated like the patient is just being a pain in the ass). Just tell her "good luck" and support her as she goes through the hell we all know nursing school to be. And be thankful some nurses actually want to "do psych patients" so you are free to do med/surg and poop. As a part time psych nurse, I find helping a manic patient more challenging than d.diff, a bowel prep, or a severe constipation patient any day. I don't "like " either condition but both require nurses. Let her be the nursing you obviously don't want to be without acting like it isn't real nursing or a legitimate specialty.
Where is she finding this feces-free 9-5, sign me up!
Lots of nursing is feces free. The nurses who work for the Red Cross collecting blood don't deal with poop. Most doctor's offices nurses deal with very little poop and if they do, it is usually already contained in a nice container when they get it. Rehab nurses don't deal with much poop. Postpartum nurses don't do much poop except maybe on the baby and contained in a diaper. Diabetes educators don't do poop. I doubt that dialysis nurses deal with much poop....should I go on?
A lot of these jobs are 8 hour shifts/5 days a week too.
I'm glad that you work for a good bunch of docs and that the pay is good. That must make for a pleasant, do-able job which is so important. It's too bad however that despite all that you are subjected to mandatory overtime on occasion. I don't have kids but if I did what in the world would I do if I couldn't leave on time to pick them up just because a case is running over? To subject nurses to mandatory overtime, simply because they are nurses it seems, is nothing more than professional disrespect. I care deeply for my patients but the bottom line is I am contracted for only a set amount of time per day-anything more than that is NOT my responsibility. If my managers want to cases to get done they need to find coverage, period. And since this is an ASU and the cases are elective, I don't feel the slightest bit of guilt cancelling a case for staffing issues. My managers know the case schedule and they know the staffing. If they permit the schedulers to book too many cases I will not allow that to infringe upon my personal life just so they can look good to their bosses and all the surgeons. To allow my personal time to be intruded upon by overzealous scheduling and underzealous staffing is disrespect and a devaluing/disinfranching of me as a professional, and I don't permit it. I don't permit bad behavior in my personal relationships and I don't permit it in my professional relationships either. To subject an RN to mandatory overtime is to make a statement that his or her time is neither valued nor important, IMO.
I will just say that the main difference my my situation and yours is that I am not contracted for a specific amount of hours in a given day, I am contracted to work a certain number of specific surgeries. Period.
No one likes to work over their projected hours-surgeons and anesthesiologists included. But sometimes things don't go as planned. We don't have additional staff on call to come in and relieve surgeons; neither do we have extra nurses waiting to come in and finish a case that goes over. It doesn't really bother me at all. My kids are off at college though. If I had young children depending on me to pick them up from school and DH couldn't bridge the occasional gap, I wouldn't be able to work at this particular job.
Sometimes we finish earlier than projected! It all balances out.
As to the OP, in my particular OR practice, I've never had to clean up poop. Knock wood.
Specializes in Case mgmt., rehab, (CRRN), LTC & psych.
Rehab nurses don't deal with much poop.
To which type of rehab are you referring? Physical rehab or drug rehab?
I'm asking because poop and capturing the patients' overall bowel function was a fundamental part of my role as a nurse in physical acute rehab, a.k.a. recovery from disability. Plenty of bed-pan slinging, brief-changing, and booty-wiping occurs in rehab.
Specializes in Case mgmt., rehab, (CRRN), LTC & psych.
Don't believe I've ever had a nurse collect my blood when I donated through the Red Cross.
Way back in 2001, I was screened by an intake RN at a local blood bank. She assessed all potential donors for suitability to donate. I was disallowed from donating because, at the time, I shared living quarters with my HCV+ parents and disclosed this information on the questionnaire I was given.
Way back in 2001, I was screened by an intake RN at a local blood bank. She assessed all potential donors for suitability to donate. I was disallowed from donating because, at the time, I shared living quarters with my HCV+ parents and disclosed this information on the questionnaire I was given.
I am unsure if blood banks still utilize RNs.
I think perhaps the places that do plasma donation employ nurses to do the initial assessments while phlebotmists perform the blood collection.
I know when donating whole blood through Red Cross it is phlebotmists who do the venipuncture.
And again, it is unlikely one will make it through nursing school without dealing with various body fluids.
Also, if students give the impression they are somehow "above" assisting patients with hygiene or that they are "destined" for greater things, that likely won't go over well with the nurses and aides on the floor (who may already have had advanced degrees before making their way to nursing/nursing school) - not to mention the patients not wanting to feel they've put out or grossed out a student.
What will she do wh e n one of her psych patients throws poop all over her? Instead of a NP, she should go.the PhD. Route. Even then shecwill have to do clinicals with very ill people who have minimal(if any) social boundaries. She wants to be what she imagines itvwill be, not what it is. Frankly, she doesn't sound like she should be in any "helping" profession. She is more concerned about her own needs and desires for regular hours, presigious job, etc.than caring for others.
I'm surprised at the number of posters here who keep harping on how sis will get poop thrown at her if she goes into psych. I worked as a staff nurse in psych for 10 years before I became a CNS, and I never encountered a client who threw or smeared poop, even in child psych. I realize it does happen, but I've got to think it's not nearly as common as some here are suggesting. I have been in psych for 30 years now, and I would estimate offhand that I can count on the fingers of one hand the number of times I've had to deal with poop at all during that time. Since becoming a psych CNS, I can assure you that that number is O. The same is going to be true of most psych NPs.
Nor I. She is "cruisin' for a bruisin'" in the vernacular. Not yor circus, not your monkeys. You'vote e tried to.be truthful, and she declines to believe. Her problem!
Sis has obviously not been successful in a career, even with a MS in psych. So she wants to breeze thru nursing school, then NP school, without having to actually do the required course work or job duties? Am I getting this right?
I am back from laughing so hard I choked.
Such and entitled person should not go into nursing. She obviously has no desire to actually care for people.
Please tell her to find another career, as nurses are caring people.
RNowakowski
4 Posts
Thank you! Everyone keeps saying that she will not be able to avoid poop, and that psych patients throw feces. As an NP all she has to do is duck and call for someone to clean it up. I have NEVER seen an NP clean up a patient. If they do a skin check and the patient is soiled they just pull up the covers and send a nurse or aide in to clean them.