Is nursing really a dirty job?

[xobeeautiful]

i am interested in being a registered nurse but i'm scared that i won't like it. Is it stressful? is it a dirty job? i dont like dirty things and that's kind of keeping me away, i really do not want to be cleaning up after people. Do all nurses clean up? Would you do nursing all over again? if not what would you choose instead? Im also thinking of becoming a physician assistant but it requires previous healthcare experience, and the schools are expensive and you have to be available full time. You can't work. Please help me, i'm so confused...

[NurseyBaby'05, BSN, RN]

What's really gross is the stuff you can't see.

[kcochrane]

There was a thread a few months ago on jobs that did not involve poop. I would do a search on poop. Sounds funny, but it was a long thread and had good info. I think working for a lawyer or insurance company you would need some floor experience.

[Susan3970]

Yeah, nursing is a dirty job but I don't think it's dirty all the time. You will encounter dirty things like blood, feces, and mucous but that's not an every day occurance. My advice might not be much considering I've only experienced nursing through my clinicals as a student nurse. I think it also depends on what area of the hospital you want to work in. For example, i think ER would be a whole lot messier than working in the nursery. There are tons of different areas that would could work in, too. For me, for every messy experience there is 20 non-messy good experiences. As for stress, my thought is that if you are a good nurse then you will be stressed because you'll care so much about the details. I've seen nurses that don't care about their patients (they are the ones that aren't stressed) but I would never encourage anyone to go into nursing to be lazy. I hope this helps!

[teeniebert, LPN]

Yes, nursing is a dirty job. Some of it involves bodily fluids, which you will have to clean off of the patient. You may also have to clean the floor depending on where you're working (not spic n span clean, but wipe up the spill so you can continue working until housekeeping gets there to disinfect). I've found that it's nowhere near as bad as I feared; or maybe it is that bad but I don't react as much as I thought I would. The first time I did colostomy care I was terrified that I would throw up, or that the smell would make me pass out...nope! The same thing happened when I had a patient with a tracheostomy--I get queasy around kids with runny noses so I thought lung secretions would be the worst thing ever...nope! Every time I've been afraid of something gross or dirty, I've handled it much better than I expected to. Something just clicked, and I was able to focus on the patient rather than on the fluids, like "wow, that must be uncomfortable" rather than "OMG that smells so bad!!!" Of course, I'm still in school so I haven't seen everything...I haven't seen much at all, probably!