Jobs W least amount of needles and blood.

[cute-1]

Hello,

What area of nursing uses the least amount of needles and where you would see the least amount of blood?...My sister told me that she plans on going to nursing school in the fall.She loves to help people and she just asked me if there was a way to be a nurse without using needles daily.I'm not sure how to answer this because I'm still a student and I'm only familiar with long term care and HH.I already told her that she will have to get comfortable with both in school and while she is gaining experience,but after that is there any specialty that fits her requirements?

[Nascar nurse, ASN, RN]

Long term care anyone? A dressing change here and there is all. Well you would have to place foleys too I guess, and deal with nasty bed sores, and ostomys, and c-diff, and cottage cheese hidden in pannus ... Yeah I guess all areas of nursing are pretty much gross. As far as legal nurse consulting goes, how are you going to be consult if you don't have extensive experience with gross stuff?

LTC... lots and lots of IDDM's with multiple insulin injections daily to multiple residents, wound vacs, complex dressing changes due to wounds, lots of IV ABT and the list goes on. Much of what happens in acute care is now happening in LTC as well!

[Elvish, BSN, DNP, RN, NP]

She might just surprise you, even if she is terrified now, she may get over it once in nursing school.

[MissBehavin]

Even if she does go into an area of nursing without a lot of blood/needles, she would still have to make it through school with A LOT of the above mentioned. Perhaps Psych nursing, primary care physicians office (the MA's do most of the injections), School nursing (however u see a lot of blood in the form of bloody noses and small accidents), she could do healthcare admin (with an RN degree), legal consulting, tele nursing, nurse recruiting. The options really are endless, but that depends just how much she cannot stand blood. Their is a difference between I cant see a trauma pt and I cant draw my own Labs.

Although their is a lot of stuff I didn't think I would do well with, and I managed through and that stuff barely effects me now. :)

[edmurse77]

If she doesn't like to see bleeding! Learn to put pressure on it!

[GadgetRN71, ASN, RN]

Tell her to stay away from the OR! Then again, I've known people that have started out being squeamish, and they end up as the sort that have guts of steel.

But really, very few nursing specialties are blood free..she may want to consider another career path.

[cute-1]

School nursing - but those jobs are hard to get! Even then, you get bloody noses and kids who may need injections... Everything I can think of that a new grad would do involves blood or grossness in some way. Has she considered any other paths in the medical field? She could still help people while not being forced to feel uncomfortable each day. Physical therapy, occupational therapy, management with a focus in healthcare, pharmacist... I do think there are nursing jobs that don't "use needles daily" as you said. HTH!

Thanks,she just told me that she is attracted to the nursing field because of the flexibility.She wants to have kids and work 12/ 3 days a week and still help people and get a decent paycheck.I'll have her to checkout some other health occupations that may offer flexibility..Maybe radiology?

[cute-1]

Thanks everyone for the posts,my computer is way too slow to thank everyone.Someone mentioned Psych,I thought that there would be lots of needle use there..can someone comment because I have no idea.Thanks.

BTW..she knows that she has to see blood and guts in school and while she 'gets her feet wet" but she was just curious about other options past those points.Thanks everyone.

[April, RN, BSN, RN]

Thanks everyone for the posts,my computer is way too slow to thank everyone.Someone mentioned Psych,I thought that there would be lots of needle use there..can someone comment because I have no idea.Thanks.

I don't work in psych, but I did do a semester of inpatient psych in school and there was the least amount of needles, blood, or any other physical contact in this setting. It depends on what kind of patients are on the unit though. Some psych diagnoses require more needles than others. A patient with depression or schizophrenia may be in a psych unit to keep them from harming themselves and only need meds by mouth and therapy. A patient with a severe eating disorder may have a feeding tube, IV, require frequent lab draws, etc. If you really want a better answer, you could post that question in the psych nursing forum. Hope this helps a little though!