Is there ANY department in nursing that I can avoid cleaning up poo?

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:

[SecondGenRN]

I really don't care if other nurses/CNAs don't "like me." I'm not there to please them. And for the comment about not telling me a patient is crashing because they secretly don't like me.. they would not dare do such a thing! Our hospital uses GPS devices (that we must wear at all times) which logs where we are and where we have been and at what times. If someone ever started to go downhill and the CNAs failed to report it to me, man, I can't even imagine the hell that they would go through. So, for me, at my facility, I don't think that would a problem. And I can't even imagine what kind of nut job would allow a patient to suffer/code/go downhill just because they do not like the person they happen to be working with. oy!

So not only are you above "poo" but you are above CNA's too? Wow! You certainly are high on yourself!!! I find it hilarious that you think a lowly CNA wouldn't dare to cross you... what makes you so special? the RN behind your name? I would love to see you spend the day in the ER here... no CNA's, no LPN's, it's all RN, all the time, guess what that means? enemas, suppositories, dis-impactions and you guessed it POOP CLEANING!

[ijuanabhappy, ASN, RN]

I am starting a nursing program this fall. I think a lot of people first starting out are just a little apprehensive because it is something foreign to them. I am worried about it myself. Not that I feel I am above it or wouldn't want to clean up after someone. As a matter of fact, it would give me great satisfaction to be able to make someone feel clean and comfortable, and with keeping their dignity and not making it seem like it is a horrendous task. I would not want to delegate the task. I'm all about getting in and doing the job, especially because I would want to take care of the accident asap so the patient isn't uncomfortable. How miserable and embarrassing that would be to have to wait for someone else to clean you up! However, since I have never been in clinical yet, I am worried that I might start gagging because I have never cleaned up after someone before. I hope I get used to it. Sometimes when I pick up my dog's poop with a baggy, I feel the gagging about to start!!

[pagandeva2000, LPN]

I am starting a nursing program this fall. I think a lot of people first starting out are just a little apprehensive because it is something foreign to them. I am worried about it myself. Not that I feel I am above it or wouldn't want to clean up after someone. As a matter of fact, it would give me great satisfaction to be able to make someone feel clean and comfortable, and with keeping their dignity and not making it seem like it is a horrendous task. I would not want to delegate the task. I'm all about getting in and doing the job, especially because I would want to take care of the accident asap so the patient isn't uncomfortable. How miserable and embarrassing that would be to have to wait for someone else to clean you up! However, since I have never been in clinical yet, I am worried that I might start gagging because I have never cleaned up after someone before. I hope I get used to it. Sometimes when I pick up my dog's poop with a baggy, I feel the gagging about to start!!

There is a clear difference between feelings of apprehension and flippantly deciding that the 'underlings' such as the LPN and CNAs are to clean feces and not the RN. Also, let's face it, no one is in love with cleaning poo!! We just know it is part of our job and as we grow as nurses/caretakers, we see how fragile life really is...it can be one of us one day, so, we do the best we can to help those who can no longer help ourselves.

Yes, you may gag, but, I suspect that you'll adjust and be a good nurse.:redpinkhe

[nuangel1, BSN, RN]

I can only think of one where you can avoid having to clean up poop. Being a RN in a daytime dialysis clinic.

that is not true at all.dialysis pts do have accidents of poo.problem in our unit was we really did not the supplies to clean them up.

[SuesquatchRN, BSN, RN]

Patients throw poop on the ceilings?!

Those with dementia, mental illness, cognitive deficits - sometimes, yeah. They eat it, play with it, hide it, prize it - nursing can be, uhm, challenging.

[pagandeva2000, LPN]

Patients throw poop on the ceilings?!

Those with dementia, mental illness, cognitive deficits - sometimes, yeah. They eat it, play with it, hide it, prize it - nursing can be, uhm, challenging.

These patients are mentally retarded. Many autistic. Their imaginative minds can make pawns in a chess game carved in poo. You'd be surprized...there was one who I used to catch eating it out of her briefs each time she caught it before we did. Another used to smear it all over the walls so thick that you'd think the painters came while no one was looking. We used to feel sorry for the housekeepers:imbar:eek:, so, we would try, but we didn't have access to the wonderful chemicals they have to clean the walls brand spanking new.

[nads786]

I am starting a nursing program this fall. I think a lot of people first starting out are just a little apprehensive because it is something foreign to them. I am worried about it myself. Not that I feel I am above it or wouldn't want to clean up after someone. As a matter of fact, it would give me great satisfaction to be able to make someone feel clean and comfortable, and with keeping their dignity and not making it seem like it is a horrendous task. I would not want to delegate the task. I'm all about getting in and doing the job, especially because I would want to take care of the accident asap so the patient isn't uncomfortable. How miserable and embarrassing that would be to have to wait for someone else to clean you up! However, since I have never been in clinical yet, I am worried that I might start gagging because I have never cleaned up after someone before. I hope I get used to it. Sometimes when I pick up my dog's poop with a baggy, I feel the gagging about to start!!

my first healthcare experience was in a LTC as a CNA in clinical

honestly it isnt that bad... but then again my very first patient had C-def

and there was poo every where, nobody changed her for days it seems

i guess after that, nothing else has given me that same gag moment

IMO the grossest thing i have done in clinical as nursing student so far has been to clean someones dentures, something about teeth fake or real just grosses me out

[megananne7]

She's young, and too unaware of how naive and ignorant she makes herself sound so I can't really blame her for her attitudes really. How many kids grow up having to clean the toilet on the weekend anymore. I may not be that much older but grew up in a different culture and with a mum with a different kind of work ethic.

In defense of my generation, I am 23 years old and have been a nurse only about a year and a half, and I have NO problem cleaning up a patient who's been incontinent!

[lpnstudentin2010, LPN]

I agree with you. I can definitely say that a lot of people my age are NOT mature and I have issues with a lot of their life choices (granted, if they want to screw up their life, thats fine, but I feel bad for unwanted children they bring into the world -- leaving them for mommom and poppop to raise -- and other things that do that affects those around them)

I love when medical profesionals assume that everyone our age (I am almost 21) make these choices, and DO NOT BELIEVE ME when I tell them no i do not, have sex, do drugs, smoke or drink.

[megananne7]

I love when medical profesionals assume that everyone our age (I am almost 21) make these choices, and DO NOT BELIEVE ME when I tell them no i do not, have sex, do drugs, smoke or drink.

I agree!! One time I went to an employee physical for my 2nd nursing job and I have REALLY bad white coat syndrome... to the point where I get really anxious and sometimes cry (or just get that shakey voice). Also, it didnt help at the time I was recovering from a bout of sciatica, still on naproxen and flexeril!

Anyway, the NP doing my physical went nuts on me, criticizing me for my weight, and then when I got upset, accused me of doing drugs and says I was upset b/c I was afraid I'd fail the urine drug test. She left the room and I heard her talking about me to the nurse doing the urine test.

I could've killed her.

[lpnstudentin2010, LPN]

I agree!! One time I went to an employee physical for my 2nd nursing job and I have REALLY bad white coat syndrome... to the point where I get really anxious and sometimes cry (or just get that shakey voice). Also, it didnt help at the time I was recovering from a bout of sciatica, still on naproxen and flexeril!

Anyway, the NP doing my physical went nuts on me, criticizing me for my weight, and then when I got upset, accused me of doing drugs and says I was upset b/c I was afraid I'd fail the urine drug test. She left the room and I heard her talking about me to the nurse doing the urine test.

I could've killed her.

I have had pre-op nurses look me straight in the eye and say "are you SURE" and the doc in the ER in december asked me, I said no and she said "well were going to do a pregers test anyway"

my response to that

I understand that is policy at this hospital, and I respect that. However, it will come back with the same answer I am giving you, not pregnant.

[Batman24]

I have had pre-op nurses look me straight in the eye and say "are you SURE" and the doc in the ER in december asked me, I said no and she said "well were going to do a pregers test anyway"

my response to that

I understand that is policy at this hospital, and I respect that. However, it will come back with the same answer I am giving you, not pregnant.

That happened to me too when I went to the ER. They kept asking time and again if I was pregnant and I kept assuring them I had never been sexually active. They then continued with the pregnancy questions anyway and added in STDs because I had abdominal pain. I finally called the doctor over privately and told him I really wasn't pregnant but was in a lot of pain and they were barking up the wrong tree. I think he finally got it. I didn't want my parents and insurance company paying for all these tests I knew were negative.