Is there ANY department in nursing that I can avoid cleaning up poo?
What Members Are Saying (AI-Generated Summary)
Members are discussing the challenges and realities of cleaning up feces in healthcare settings, particularly in relation to different nursing roles. Some members express apprehension about this aspect of the job, while others share their experiences and offer advice to those new to the field. The discussion also touches on generational attitudes towards cleaning tasks and personal choices.
Sorry for the awkwardness but I looked through previous threads and read the stories and I think I would just lose it if I walked into a bathroom where the walls were covered with diarrhea and I had to clean it all up
My mom tries to tell me not to worry and "just get the LVN/CNA to clean it up" but for some reason I don't think that it works out that easily...
Is there any department in hospitals that wouldnt have to deal with this type of situation? psychiatric ward perhaps? working a job outside a hospital?
Any help you can give me would be greatly appreciated :plsebeg:
pretty much everyone that i speak with in my nursing program believes its "the cnas job" to clean the poo, and once in a while you will have to when they arent there
not saying that is right, just throwing out what students in my area are thinking
All you poo avoiders need to spend some time in the ICU. It took me about three weeks to get over being grossed out by poop in its many many forms. I couldn't change a baby's diaper without gagging before I started working. Now it barely fazes me. Our CNA's job is to hold the patient over while we scrub buns, and theirs is seriously still the hard job (unconscious people are heavy!). Don't forget that a nurse should take a holistic approach to patient care and that definitely includes the ickier stuff. In my mind, we owe it to our patients to overcome our aversions. It is embarrassing enough without a nurse getting all queasy. Your patients know if you find them repulsive.
I remember when I was younger at church an elderly lady had an accident and it was my mom who took care of it. She waited until everyone else left and then helped the sweet lady get cleaned up and comfortable and then drove her home. I was so impressed with my mom (who is a nurse) that she didn't even flinch and was so careful of the lady's feelings. It is seriously part of how a nurse is a hero. It is not the glamorous part of being a nurse (I'm not sure there is one) but it is so important!
Specializes in Assisted Living, Med-Surg/CVA specialty.
I have seen such MANY a day!!! Some will take all of the vital signs (taking close to 2 hours), then, document that they were ALL done at 8:00am, and then, not tell you that someone was dead low until close to 11am...because (drum rolling....) "They looked okay to me".
On the positive side, aides have warned me of who was a pain in the butt, unreasonable, who looked strange, who is not responsive, when a supervisor I am avoiding is making rounds, and many other useful things that have made my day much easier.
Same!! I am a new nurse (who actually was never a CNA) but if I have the time, I'll go in to help my CNA/PCT with cleaning someone up, or take someone off the bedpan for them, etc. In response, I usually get a thank you and they often will do my favors for the rest of the day... letting me know when so and so doesn't feel right, someone's BP being high or low, etc.
Often, when I am assisting the aide, I hear horror stories from them about "Nurse Betty will walk out of a room and look in every room for me, once she finds me she'll say So-and-So needs the bedpan... She could've put them on the bedpan in the amount of time it took to find me!"
No offense to the OP, but I don't see how you can be very successful with this type of attitude.
Specializes in Community Health, Med-Surg, Home Health.
The GOOD CNAs work so freaking hard! It is back-breaking work. Turning, positioning, providing ADL care is very hard, and to make them feel small by basically saying that they are the 'poop cleaners' is not fair.
One of the things I felt guilty about when becoming a nurse was not always being as available as I was before to assist them. I remember going into orientation on med-surg as a new grad nurse and at that time, I couldn't help them, because while I knew their job, I did not know my new position well enough to work safely. I can tell that some of my old collagues were a bit resentful. As I got better and more proficent in my new duties as a nurse, I certainly did take time to change the diapers, sheets, clothing and all that I could do within reason, because I also knew that I needed them. I need their eyes, their opinions and contributions to nursing care. And, I also took time to teach them. I would tell them thank you all the time, and we did great. I was only up there for 2 months, but, I did gain their respect.
Now, working in the clinic, the duties of the techs are not so back breaking, but, I still come to see how they are doing, ask their opinions and give them guidance, because I still need them, and do not want the good ones to become turned off to nurses.
;)Some days I am the poo magnet at work in the ED. It got so bad at one facility that the ER techs would run when I stuck my head out of the room looking for help. "We know it's bad if YOU are looking for help!!"
Lots of EDs do not do enemas or impactions, but I have never been blessed to work there. I have decided that poo on the move is a great thing. If I can help it get there, so much the better. (but I really don't like currant jelly GI bleed stools. I gotta try the vaporub...getting tired of wintergreen.) No worries with any other fluids I can think of.
Those little old people who need "removals" are the most appreciative patients of all.
And I never learned to do enemas in nursing school (in 1985)--learned them in the ED.
I would recommend a little aversion therapy as was stated before, if you really want to be a nurse.
At the beginning of every shift I inform the patient that if there is any type of "restroom need" then to please call their CNA assigned to them. Sometimes they don't always listen and when they call me in, I politely remind them that the CNA is responsible for "those types of tasks." So far this has worked out very well. I've never had any of the CNAs get mad at me. Poopoo makes me gag.
I just have to say that anyone who tells a patient to wait to use the bathroom or to continue to sit in because of his or her own aversions to bodily fluids or anything else should not be a nurse. Perhaps the patients doesn't say anything to you because they are embarrassed or shocked at your attitude. Caring for the patient should be the first priority. We all have issues and aversions. We all do plenty of things everyday that laypeople would find disgusting, to be blunt. I find it terrible that you would tell someone who needs to use the restroom, or who needs to be cleaned up, to wait for someone else to come along and do it because you don't like poop.
I just wanted to point out to those afraid of the poo, I was once really afraid of the poo, the puke, the sputum, the blood, and all of the sounds and smells associated with the afore mentioned.
When I became a CNA @ 25, I would go through these fits of retching when I encountered the poo (the puke, the sputum), which I learned to do quietly (so as not to offend my pt.), and eventually, I became accustomed to it!
For those above cleaning the poo, the puke, and the sputum, I pray I don't end up as a patient (or nurse when I am done with school) in your facility (along with any members of my family) . However, I believe your day is coming, you will have to deal with the poo sooner or later, trust me!
On a lighter note, the funniest poo story I have ever heard, was about a sweet little old woman who had Alzheimer's/dementia, and she often liked to play with her poo. The aides were doing rounds on evening shift, and they found her quietly laying in bed, with perfectly rounded little balls of poo neatly lined up on her bed rail! :chuckle
Thank you everyone for sharing your poo (and other bodily functions) stories, it reminds me why I am going into nursing (no, not the poo part). Most nurses are fabulous human beings (CNA's, and tech's also), and I love the comradery!
I really don't find it funny that an elderly lady was making balls with her feces. Ick. Disgusting. And to nads - finally, someone who understands where I am coming from! I was told the same things in nursing school (about focusing on the meds, patho, etc).
I am a really good nurse. In fact, in the short time that I have been working as one, I've gotten several letters of praise from patients and/or family members of patients. The nurse manager absolutely adores me and we get along so well. Apparently I am doing SOMETHING right :)
And you're probably all right - yes, I will someday suffer the consequences of not dealing with the poo! (hehe).
and to those who say I should not be a nurse... are you serious? I find that quite funny! Hello everyone, I was terminated because I avoided the poo. hehe!
Yes, I think I would [make a CNA clean up the poop] My aversion is just too great!!
Well, I'm not changing careers. I am here to stay
At the beginning of every shift I inform the patient that if there is any type of "restroom need" then to please call their CNA assigned to them. Sometimes they don't always listen and when they call me in, I politely remind them that the CNA is responsible for "those types of tasks." So far this has worked out very well. I've never had any of the CNAs get mad at me. Poopoo makes me gag.
wow....i wish i could be a fly on the wall in the room when you left a patient by the bedside in the middle of an enema to go get a cna, pull him/her away from the 15 other patients they're taking care of, so that YOU didn't have to clean poop, so i could see the CNA look at you and say...... "and they're paying YOU three times as much money as ME?????" before she walks away because she has three other people waiting on commodes and bedpans for her to get back to work.
this should be the karma of all you "nurses" out there who actually make their co-workers do their jobs for them: one day you'll be a patient yourself, covered in poop and have some snooty nurse turn her nose up at you and walk out to look for a cna to clean you up....but the CNA won't come because she's tired of that stupid nurse always making her do her dirty work.....so you'll just sit in your own poop smelling it and gagging at yourself and feeling all around miserable....hopefully at that time you'll reflect back on all the patients you've made feel that way over the years, and FINALLY wipe someone's a**.......your own!
I find your whole jovial attitude about this subject extremely offensive. You should have known about this in school and gotten out - I would hate being your CNA.
I have decided that poo on the move is a great thing. If I can help it get there, so much the better. (but I really don't like currant jelly GI bleed stools. I gotta try the vaporub...getting tired of wintergreen.) No worries with any other fluids I can think of. 
. However, I believe your day is coming, you will have to deal with the poo sooner or later, trust me!
nads786
59 Posts
pretty much everyone that i speak with in my nursing program believes its "the cnas job" to clean the poo, and once in a while you will have to when they arent there
not saying that is right, just throwing out what students in my area are thinking