No blood and guts;cut out to be an RN?

nurseprnRN, BSN, RN · Jul 8, 2011

listen to those people. they know what they're talking about. there are plenty of things you can do as an rn that won't involve lots of blood and gore. you'll probably see some of it, but not like you see on tv or the slasher films :clown: . if you can change a bloody bandaid on a kid's skinned knee, that may be more blood than you'll see on a lot of med/surg floors in a month.

something in your post made me remember when, once upon a time, we were actually overstaffed in our icu (yes, my child, it was a loooong time ago in a place far away), and our boss offered us all the chance to float somewhere else in the house for the experience or for fun. since i had always been scared to death of the nicu i did that, figuring if i booked myself in for six weeks and couldn't get out i might learn something. i did, actually. i never wanted to work there full time, but it was great to do critical care without back strain. the nurses there didn't let me do real sick babies by myself but after awhile they let me do more and more. and the funny thing was that the thing i remember most from this time was that those nurses were scared to death of where i worked, the adult open heart unit/general surgical icu. they really didn't understand it, but it scared them.

once in that icu i precepted a senior bsn student for four months, 32 hours per week, she worked my schedule whatever it was, great experience for her. she was an older student, already had a master's in microbiology (and boy, did i pick her brains on that!), and pretty mature. but at the beginning, when i had her come over to take a tour of the place before she started the next week, i couldn't get her much past the break room. she looked really uncomfortable, and i kept trying to make small jokes, and whatnot. i finally took her down to the cafeteria and said, "adrienne, did i say something to upset you? is there something wrong?" and she looked up at me and finally blurted out, "how many cardiac arrests do you have here in a day?" she had this image of just major chaos like they had on tv, and she was trying to be brave about it but it scared her.

me, i was sooo relieved. i said, "you know, we haven't had one for about 5 months that i can recall. we are sorta all about preventing that sort of thing, you know?" and she relaxed a bit. and of course, as luck would have it, we had three codes on days the four months she was with me. one she got to observe from the corner, one she got to pass me things and help out a bit by pumping blood, and the third was her patient who just choked on his steak (yeah, they had steak on sundays. it was a looong time ago...) and had a respiratory arrest. she did great.

why i think of this is because you mentioned severed arms, and i would be willing to bet that a regular er person doesn't see that every day of the week either. :smokin: nobody will hold a gun to your head and make you work trauma or burn unit or icu if you don't want to, trust me on that one. ask questions especially if something weirds you out-- perspective is not that hard to acquire, but ask someone who has it already when you're just starting out. get your bsn the fastest way you can, and we'll see you in the halls!

Casey, RN · Jul 8, 2011

I second what GrnTea said. I also am not one for blood and guts, and that concerned me when I decided to pursue Nursing, but I made it through nursing school without seeing anything too terrible - mostly incisions and pressure ulcers. I know I could never work trauma, but there are lots of people who love that kind of thing and they apply for it. Me, I'm working on a Maternal/Newborn unit and I get the "ewe babies" from some people - which, in a way, is great because if we all wanted the same jobs that would be bad :) we'd all be fighting over them.

I say, go for it! There are so many options and different types of units you can work in... on a side note - I was surprised to learn - at least at my hospital - that PT does a lot of wound care which can be pretty gross so definitely something to keep in mind or look into if you decide to go that route. Personally, I think Nursing would provide more options and diversity and career growth.

Good luck with whatever you decide!!

Double-Helix, BSN, RN · Jul 8, 2011

Psychiatric nursing

School nursing

Doctor's offices

Telephone Triage

Rehab

Infection Control

Case Management

Home health (might see some wounds, but nothing acute)

Maternal/Neonatal

Those are a few specialties that stuck out where you would rarely encounter blood and guts. There are other specialties where you might encounters these things occasionally, but they aren't a large part of practice.

You will probably have to encounter and master some of these skills in clinicals, though. Clinicals tend to be on acute care units where you will encounter some wounds and surgeries and maybe a blood transfusion or two. I think you will learn to tolerate it, though. I've had several people mention that they were squemish about blood, but once you encounter blood a few times in a professional situation, you can stay seperated, focus on your nursing task, and you find it doesn't bother you as much.

layleebug · Jul 8, 2011

Public Health Nursing.... love the thought of it...

its1mc · Jul 9, 2011

Thanks for all the comments and kind words!I know I will have to eventually"man up",hehe.I realize that if I want to pursue it I might have to deal with it to a certain degree,but didn't want to be an every day job.Well thanks again for your opinions:)

eslvn · Jul 9, 2011

As a CNA you see a lot of the same things nurses do. Youdont have to work in hospitals to be a nurse. I sometimes cringe when I change a wound vac only when they are so darn deep, and how unbeleivably painful it must be. All nurses have their things, but you learn to deal with them. I used to gag when I had to deal with any sort of mucus or vomit. Not anymore. Surgery and ER are only two areas you can work in as an RN. Although there are things you can do, I gaurantee you will run into some icky blood and such somewhere in your career. My advice, face your fear!

steelydanfan · Jul 9, 2011

Hello there.Just wanted to point out from the beginning that I am a male.I have been a CNA for about a 1-1/2 years now and I love my job.I wish I could be a CNA forever and climb up the pay scale but we all know how that works.I'm in school now but I have a long way to go.My major is in nursing but I am also considering becoming a physical or occupational therapist assistant.My first few semesters are the same pre-rex,so I have some time to decide what I really want to do.I'm keeping that thought because somethings that nurses have to do really creep me out.I can change dirty diapers all day and i'm not bothered by feces,saliva and other similar stuff like that.But to be real honest I get grossed out and cringe when I see blood and stuff that comes with it,ie cuts,wounds,etc. I tell people at work and they say,"there are plenty of things nurses can do that don't involve blood and guts".I was wondering what kind of things that were out there that didn't involve things like this.I think I could handle some things that aren't the best situation for me but there's is no way I could work in an ER or trauma where people are coming in with severed arms and things of that nature.So am I just not really cut out to be a nurse if I have this issue?Should I just go on and focus on therapy? Thanks for any advice.

I have seen so many of these types of posts as to be totally sick of them. Please, stop thinking about what you CAN'T do.

You CAN do all kinds of things, you just have not been there yet. IV's involve blood, but I guarantee you when you are in nursing school, the thrill of starting an IV will cause you to lose sight of the blood involved.

You CAN do trauma even if it is bloody, because in trauma you are focused on lines, keeping pressures up and

ventilating your pt. Never mind dealing with the human aspects of this pt.s problems.

The sickest pt. I ever had was vomiting and excreting blood as fast as I could get it into him. I did not have time to think about the smells or the clots, or the mess. I just thought about saving his life. And you will too.

Then you will go home, thank God you CAN, and have a shower.

Please, stop making concrete statements without first confronting your phobias first hand. You are limiting yourself. And we cannot afford it.