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.
I work with surgeons who help clean patients up, and/or put catheters in, and/or do a million other things people assume physicians never do. I personally love to make med students help...not so sure they love it.
There are worse things than poop. Even when it's the worst of what you're faced with right then - there are two things to remember, you're the caregiver and not the patient (how would you feel as them, roles reversed), and it could be MUCH worse.
Every time I clean poop, I wish and hope that I do it in a way that treats the pooper with dignity. Every time I think, what if this were me? And it could be me any time any day. I do not get to choose when and how my ticket is punched. I would like it to happen so that nobody ever has to clean my poop, but that is not my choice.
I clean poop with pride and respect. It isn't always easy and I wasn't always so professional. After working in hospice, I have been proud to clean some people's poop and to give them the respect that they deserve.
I would rather clean poop than worry about a psychotic attention seeking patient who is willing to throw herself on the ground and break a bone just to get the chance to sue and possibly cost my license.
I was much the same way in nursing school. I went to nursing school to become an NP and only to become an NP. I wanted nothing to do with the "trenches." In school I tried to keep quiet and avoid personal care only doing what I had to do to maintain a good grade in clinicals. Now I'm on a very poop-heavy unit with a master's degree and still working as a floor nurse- by choice. And I'm just fine with poop and all aspects of personal care. It don't phase me at all. I appreciate being able to assess my patient and help preserve my patient's dignity however possible. I like providing the type of care I would want my loved ones to have.
So...it's understandable that she may have a fear of this. But don't give up on her yet.
I worked as a CNA for a few years out of a health Oc program from high school, cleaned a lot of poop then. Folks need to feel they can maintain as much dignity as possible while vulnerable like this. Went to practical nursing school, didn't have that clean up much the next several years; only occasionally with an OB patient or clinic accident. Years have passed now and I've been out of nursing a long time due to illness and taking several medications. Doing home health care as an aide looking into a nursing refresher program. And I'm sad to say, poop care nauseates me badly. (Meds) I make it out of the room with a straight voice and face, but have to quietly sprint to the BR. I have no idea how to handle this. And I feel horrible.
Maybe she'll learn that its not about the poop, and that it's about an individual so helpless that they can't even take care of the most basic life functions.
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Hygiene Queen
2,232 Posts
Ain't that the truth.
I once grabbed my WOW only to find it frosted with a mighty coating of poop