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:
Stop thinking about getting lpn/cna to clean up poops. Trust me junior staff can make your life miserable on the job if you don't treat them with respect and remember they are not environmental staff. If you a problem with poops, get an office job or home care nursing.
In homecare, you won't be cleaning the poo off someone...you'll be digging it out of someone. And good luck asking a CNA or LPN to clean the pt's poo for you...they're too busy running around doing everything else delegated to them from other nurses.
Dude an open heart recovery unit is the answer to your poo phobia. I worked there for three years and never cleaned poo once. Actually, when bowel sounds returned, ETT and other cool toys d/c'd, we shipped them to the step down unit. Even better, if the patient became a chronic problem aka, couldnt get them extubated and we were starting to prolong misery, they were shipped to the death star (coronary care unit) when their room was needed for a fresh post-op. Cannot guarantee that you will never see poo here, but it is definitely not going to be often.
I too used to be afraid of the brown monster, that is until I read What's Your Poo Telling You? by Josh Richman and Anish Sheth. Great educational read for the restroom. The explanations and illustrations will make you feel at ease with poo.
I worked in psych facility, and I saw plent of it. The adolescents who threw it at staff, smeared it. The geri-pts. who all had diarrhea one night. It was a code brown on the whole unit. I am sure that it was the food. We would get pt. all cleaned up, clean sheats, and only for them to have it seeping out as soon as we cleaned it up. Then it was the pts. in the next room. I will never forget that one night that the whole unit had code brown. And, it was one of the funnest/funniest nights, believe it or not. We just got to the point that all you could do was laugh. We all worked together.
You can get over all of the gross stuff, if you truly want to be a nurse. I always had an interest in nursing, but steered clear because I could not stand the sight of blood. However, I made myself get over it because my desire for nursing was stronger. And, if you are ever a patient, you will realize how humiliating it is for the patient. I have been on both sides of the bed. Just remember to always treat your patient like you would want to be treated,or how you would treat your own family member. And, that does not mean calling for someone else to clean up your patient.
Forget getting a nursing job without poop you won't get through nursing school without dealing with it. Loads of it.
Also, no adult likes to poop or pee the bed. It's embarassing. Our job is to clean them up and get them as comfortable as we can as quick as we can. It doesn't fall solely to a CNA, LPN or RN. It's the job of all of us.
I hope you find what you are looking for, as for the poo, most of the pt. I have ever worked with are humiliated and embarrassed that someone has to clean up after them. Put yourself in that pt. position for a minute and imagine how you would feel......
YES YES and YES again. I am a patient, last time I was in the hospital I wet the bed twice. I was SO embarrassed. It was the nurses treating me with amazing respect and not making me feel worse that made it bareable.
Stop thinking about getting lpn/cna to clean up poops. Trust me junior staff can make your life miserable on the job if you don't treat them with respect and remember they are not environmental staff. If you a problem with poops, get an office job or home care nursing.
You have to deal with poop in home care and there are no CNAs or LPNs around to pass the poop, er buck, to.:wink2:
I'm with an earlier poster. What about the OP's mom who thinks poo will be beneath her daughter if she becomes an RN? I am always interested in other peoples perception of nurses. On to the poo... We had an RN in the clinic with MAJOR "princess" complex. Just never got past bodily fluids. She now works on the hospital prescription line!
NurseRoRo
104 Posts
In homecare, you won't be cleaning the poo off someone...you'll be digging it out of someone. And good luck asking a CNA or LPN to clean the pt's poo for you...they're too busy running around doing everything else delegated to them from other nurses.