Is clinic nursing a dirty job?

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Hello. I was curious as to whether clinic nursing is a dirty job. I have no issues with blood, but I'm wondering if any of you clinic nurses have to deal with other unpleasant things. I still believe nurses are amazing given all the responsibilities they have. Thank you for all you advice!

I work with one of those plastic surgery office nurses, she refuses to pick dirty stuff up off the floor and every day and every hour she says to me and my co workers to "go get me xyz." She is very lazy and is grossed out by everything. This is her 3rd job, first two were in a plastics office. She is really good at looking down on everyone and ordering them around, based on what she won't do now in the "dirty" department, you will probably be fine in a plastics office doing non dirty things.

I see. I never thought being a plastic surgery nurse would be dirty work. I know you're exposed to blood but I'm not really sure what else it entails. Could you maybe elaborate on the dirty work that your co-worker is uneasy about? Plastic surgery nursing sounds like an interesting profession.

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The job she is at now with me is NOT at a plastic surgeons office.

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Specializes in Emergency, Trauma, Critical Care.

I would first shadow a nurse if at all possible before you commit. I worked ICU, I've done ER/trauma. I've thrown scrubs away in both. I've thrown up from smells so bad in both. But not until after I left the room. I've seen horrific wounds and had patients so up cleansed we had to order a terminal clean before the room could be used again.

ICU you bathe your patients. Yes, we have ratio laws, but it's also rare to have a tech available to help you. Usually you and several nurses go down the line and give each patient a bed bath. You get in every nook and cranny and you turn them every two hours because bedsores don't help them get well.

You will have patients die, you will be coding them and pressing on their chest and hear ribs crunching. You will have GI bleeds puke on you, and it's probably one of the worst smells to me. You will watch family members have animalistic cries when the doc tells them their loved one has passed, and you will be there with tissues for the family and give them support.

I had a love hate relationship with ICU nursing, Some OCD is a requirement.

Whatever you decide, make sure you have the right knowledge for it. It is a very long journey and you want to make sure it's a good fit for you.

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I would first shadow a nurse if at all possible before you commit. I worked ICU, I've done ER/trauma. I've thrown scrubs away in both. I've thrown up from smells so bad in both. But not until after I left the room. I've seen horrific wounds and had patients so up cleansed we had to order a terminal clean before the room could be used again.

ICU you bathe your patients. Yes, we have ratio laws, but it's also rare to have a tech available to help you. Usually you and several nurses go down the line and give each patient a bed bath. You get in every nook and cranny and you turn them every two hours because bedsores don't help them get well.

You will have patients die, you will be coding them and pressing on their chest and hear ribs crunching. You will have GI bleeds puke on you, and it's probably one of the worst smells to me. You will watch family members have animalistic cries when the doc tells them their loved one has passed, and you will be there with tissues for the family and give them support.

I had a love hate relationship with ICU nursing, Some OCD is a requirement.

Whatever you decide, make sure you have the right knowledge for it. It is a very long journey and you want to make sure it's a good fit for you.

Thank you for your careers advice. I did contact two hospitals and they said that they don't allow job shadowing but I can volunteer instead.

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Specializes in Postpartum, Med Surg, Home Health.
You're kidding, right?

No, the doctor who makes $750,000 per year is NOT going to help me clean and exam room! I'm just thankful that he's finally learned to: shield his scalpel & leave the rest in the disposable sterile tray I put on the field for that purpose!

As for clinic nurse being a clean job, just Google "removal of....." or "busting....." & see what we do daily.

I'm not sure who you are responding to. I however would not even want a doctor helping me clean an exam room. We pay them lots and lots of money to use their brains to treat sick people. So no they shouldn't be spending any time cleaning anything, they should be spending time thinking/researching (or whatever it is that they need to do) to decide on treatment plans for their pts.

Some people do not understand this. At the clinic where I used to work, they had the nurses answering all the phone calls that were transferred to the clinic. I did so much secretarial work it was ridiculous. We kept asking them to hire a clerk to do that for us among other things, so that we had more time to spend on the triage and other things we had to do that actually require an RN license. But nope they just wouldn't. Well, fine by me if you want to pay me $50 per hour to do secretary work; but then I have to stay and charge overtime to finish my actual work. Sorry this was off topic, had to rant a little.

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I'm not sure who you are responding to. I however would not even want a doctor helping me clean an exam room. We pay them lots and lots of money to use their brains to treat sick people. So no they shouldn't be spending any time cleaning anything, they should be spending time thinking/researching (or whatever it is that they need to do) to decide on treatment plans for their pts.

Some people do not understand this. At the clinic where I used to work, they had the nurses answering all the phone calls that were transferred to the clinic. I did so much secretarial work it was ridiculous. We kept asking them to hire a clerk to do that for us among other things, so that we had more time to spend on the triage and other things we had to do that actually require an RN license. But nope they just wouldn't. Well, fine by me if you want to pay me $50 per hour to do secretary work; but then I have to stay and charge overtime to finish my actual work. Sorry this was off topic, had to rant a little.

Wow. That's amazing that they would pay you $50/hr to be a secretary. I can understand your frustration since you're probably thinking to yourself, "why did I go to nursing school for?!"

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Specializes in psych.
I'm not sure why some of us nurses tend to bully”, eat-our-young” and otherwise be sarcastic to other nurses. Vianyerie has clearly expressed a sincere question asking for advice. Why do some of us have to be cynical in our responses to her? It's no wonder that nurses can't come together and be recognized nationally and be respected like we want to. And we wonder why nurses have latched onto the ‘stethoscope' issue as a way to band together? Nurses very frequently are off-putting, snubbing or back-stabbing other nurses. I personally haven't seen this behavior in other professions such as teaching, but maybe it exists and I'm just unaware…either way, if the days at work are so bad that we are unhappy and discontented, we need to look elsewhere for work.

I was an elementary school teacher, hate to tell you it happens there too.

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Yep! I taught school too....I asked several tenured teachers for help with doing my plans the way the district wanted them. No help....not even by showing a correct one. Did they want them the way we learned in school? Or on lesson planning books? NO. I finally was talking to a sub who had been full-time & was willing to help.

As for clinic craziness? I worked for one clinic that if the doctor saw us sitting, he handed us his dictaphone. So we could transcribe for him. It didn't matter if we had sat to finally eat 6 hours after starting, or were ON the phone with a patient....he talked faster than normal when dictating AND didn't understand why we couldn't finish all he had done the day before by the end of the day. Ummm.....I'm seeing patients??? We had our own infusion patients we saw besides rooming all of his. He saw 10 or more per hour & we saw 25 or so on our own. Just 2 nurses and a clerk.

I came to hate the days he was there. We had enough to do without him!

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I was an elementary school teacher, hate to tell you it happens there too.

I wonder why.

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Specializes in Short Term/Skilled.

Meh, I'll take all of it and raise you some bugs. Can't do the critters, *hoobawoobamoobalalalalalablah*.

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Specializes in Emergency, Trauma, Critical Care.
Thank you for your careers advice. I did contact two hospitals and they said that they don't allow job shadowing but I can volunteer instead.

Definitely seize the opportunity to volunteer. If your a good volunteer and help out the nurse sometimes we'll explain things and you get to see what we do.

i think not every department allows you to volunteer. I feel like it's mainly ER and L & D, but every place is different.

Just wiping down beds may give you an idea of what your getting yourself into :)

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Specializes in Specializes in L/D, newborn, GYN, LTC, Dialysis.

Worked in OB/GYN clinic.

The complete prolapse of a uterus sure is yummy, laying there in front of the patient.

But the worst is a woman who used a potato as a pessary. OH yea it took root. NASTAY.

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