Nursing specialty that requires minimum patient contact and best hours?

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Please list your experience or knowledge of specific nursing specialties that have minimum patient contact (code brown, c-dif, etc), and what specialty provides the best hours? For instance working in a hospital versus a clinic? Thanks.

Specializes in Critical Care, ED, Cath lab, CTPAC,Trauma.
Ya know, maybe instead of "the rapist" op meant to have it look like "therapist" backwards :-D

The OP discussed that back around page 2 or 3......

While all this poopy talks is fun....the thread is about what area of nursing requires minimal patient contact and great hours.

Please stick to topic! :)

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Specializes in Pediatrics/Developmental Pediatrics/Research/psych.

I just read the ought this entire thread, and the op never said that she is not willing to have patient contact. She is, however, almost graduating and is probably fed up with this ASPECT of patient care. Many schools do spend a majority of their Med Surg clinical hours doing ADLs even though as an RN they have a much larger scope.

The op, in my opinion, is very brave to admit to herself and us that she wants to pursue a specialty that will be better for her. While many jobs do involve patient contact, she is just looking for one with less.

Nursing is a changing field. There was a time when nurses cleaned the ward and cleaned patients. They also had to respect doctors like gods. Because of advancements in our field, we can now specialize. I don't think there's anything wrong with trying to prevent burnout by finding a job that works for you.

The op has a lot of insight into her strengths and weaknesses. I congratulate you for that!

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Specializes in Specialty Oncology Pharmacy.

The OP discussed that back around page 2 or 3......

While all this poopy talks is fun....the thread is about what area of nursing requires minimal patient contact and great hours

Please stick to topic! :)

If you read the entire thread, you will see that I posted about my non-clinical nursing job with great hours and no pt contact. I wasn't just posting to write about poopy talk, I was just speculating. I'm not one to start waves...and I did read what op's username meant, I just didn't see before I posted.

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Specializes in Critical Care, ED, Cath lab, CTPAC,Trauma.

GoddessLilithLPN I read the entire thread....I moderate.....I should have separated the two posts. I apologize.

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MODERATOR NOTE:

While all this poopy talks is fun....the thread is about what area of nursing requires minimal patient contact and great hours.

Please stick to topic! :)

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Specializes in Public Health, L&D, NICU.
It was just a question to what kind of responses I would get from this community. I know that direct patient care/code browns/c-dif/mrsa/etc is all part of the job. I absolutely know that ICU have no techs and are usually 1 to 2 patients. I do plan to put in my time as a beside nurse, and was looking towards the future after I get into an APRN degree. Didn't mean to offend anyone if I did I apologize in advance. No hard feelings life is too short. Cheers!

Med/surg made me doubt my decision to go into nursing. And if that were the only way I could be a nurse, I'd be working at Target. But there are so many other things you can do besides med/surg! Once I graduated, I never worked in med/surg again (unless we got a non-infectious med/surg patient as overflow).

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Specializes in Specialty Oncology Pharmacy.
GoddessLilithLPN I read the entire thread....I moderate.....I should have separated the two posts. I apologize.

..........................................................................................................

MODERATOR NOTE:

While all this poopy talks is fun....the thread is about what area of nursing requires minimal patient contact and great hours.

Please stick to topic! :)

Oh, I'm sorry! I'm still new at posting regularly. I wasn't aware that you moderate.

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I think you missed the point. People aren't saying that nurses don't function well in non-direct patient care settings. But that it's unrealistic to go right into those settings directly from nursing school without doing at least a few years at the bedside. You don't get hired directly into management or insurance without the experienced gleaned at the bedside working with patients.

Did you not read my first sentence?...........

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None of the gross out stuff bothers me; poop, urine, mrsa, c-diff, vomit, snot, etc. What had done me in are the obese ones. Lifting, rolling, toileting, ass scratching, leg lifting 500lb people has destroyed my back.

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All the dirty stuffs and heavy transfer didn't bother me badly, but the work place bullying and backstabbing really annoys me.

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Specializes in Hem/Onc/BMT.

After 11 pages of merits of poop-cleaning, I'm surprised no one has brought up this point:

It's not about paying your dues in the trenches. It really is about how good a nurse you are. I'm not talking about respecting dignity or empathy, but rather practical (and extremely important) matters. When a nurse cleans poop, the nurse assesses the amount and characteristics of the poop which might give important clues to the disease process, assesses and monitors skin integrity, which is important in preventing infection and debility, as well as the pt's functional/ADL status which you must consider in planning discharge. If students are spending their med-surg clinical time thinking it's just cleaning poop and not learning all these assessment skills, well... I am very very disappointed in the nursing instructors of today.

To the OP, there's nothing wrong wanting to work away from bedside. But if you want advanced practice, bedside experience is necessary part of the learning. At least it's my philosophy that someone who treats people should possess the keen eyes of observation and assessment skills, and analytical skills... such as what I illustrated above.

If anyone thinks it's funny that I place such extreme importance in poop-cleaning, consider this: physicians of ancient Greece actually tasted their patients' urine in order to figure out their illness. It's a crazy thing to do now, but we should at least learn from such inquisitiveness.

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Specializes in Emergency, ICU.
Oh I'm sorry! I'm still new at posting regularly. I wasn't aware that you moderate.[/quote'] OP -- you're fine. It is absolutely possible to find a place in nursing where you feel good about your job. And poop does not have to be a part of it. If your plan is to go the CRNA route, then poop is in your future. Sorry. ICU involves direct patient care. If you go the ACNP or FNP route, then you have other options. I do not think you have to absolutely work med-surg to "earn your stripes". And it will not define the kind of nurse you are. Your innate intelligence does that, no matter how many years of experience you've got. Sent from my iPhone using allnurses.com
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Specializes in Medical-Surgical, Telemetry/ICU Stepdown.

Another recommendation: consider case management. My buddy has an associate degree in nursing and she got a job for a case management company. At the time they hired her, she had like 1 year of nursing home experience so her resume was pretty average, but she is very nice and well-spoken and has great interpersonal skills.

Case management involves patient contact, but it's mostly paperwork and documentation and interviewing and making phone calls so it may be a good place for the bedside shy nurses.

I understand it can be a stressful job because some patients/families have great expectations and they see (unfairly) the RN manager as the source of their frustration so it can be a difficult manager-patient relationship.

A case management company wanted to hire me once but I declined because I really wanted more hospital experience at that time. They knew I had no prior experience in case management. The director who offered me a job told me it's pretty difficult to train/orient case managers without prior experience, but she was willing to give me a chance by making me shadow an expert for like 3 months.

However, since my buddy was able to learn it when she was a junior RN then it's probably not rocket science and it can be done.

My buddy told me some salary figures that were not bad, something like $35/hr for a case manger RN in Chicago suburbs. Something definitely worth looking into, if only to get some information and gauge the market...

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