what percentage of your job involves poop?

klone, MSN, RN · Jul 6, 2011

For me (OB) maybe 20% poop. Women poop in labor, and babies poop, period. Luckily, newborn poop doesn't smell. During labor, it can be a bit smelly at times, but labor and delivery itself has lots of smells, from the blood and amniotic fluid. There have only been a handful of times where it was bad, and I just breathe through my mouth.

Critical thinking - maybe 80% (closer to 100% when doing L&D, and less when doing postpartum, where I sometimes feel like a highly-paid waitress).

Cleaning up poop (and urine, and vomit, and blood) is just part of the job. By no means is it the main part, though. There is so much more to it than that, and really, when you're doing it, it becomes second nature and not a big deal. When I get a freshly delivered mom up to the bathroom for the first time, and she's dripping blood all over the floor, and I'm spraying off her bottom and washing the blood and poo off the insides of her thighs with a washcloth, I have heard SO MANY TIMES "I don't know how you can do this job!" but really, it's not a big deal. It's part of the job, and it just becomes routine to deal with "icky" stuff on a routine basis.

Sparrowhawk · Jul 6, 2011

I am not trying to be mean, I just wanna know why poop is so important? When I wanted to be a nurse, I didn't even think about it.

Eberbody poopies.

kabooski · Jul 6, 2011

better question would be: What percentage of your job required a "College Education"; especially those with shiny new 4 year Degrees

and what percentage of your Job where you like "I needed to go to college to do this"?

onedayitllbeme · Jul 6, 2011

Not sure how to answer that. I guess I'd say it isn't that important; i don't think I said that. It makes sense to me that not everyone thinks about the same things when going into a career, so it isn't surprising you didn't think about it.

Was really just a question, one I hadn't seen asked in this way (but of course many other ways), and the input has been great. Thanks again!

I am not trying to be mean, I just wanna know why poop is so important? When I wanted to be a nurse, I didn't even think about it.
Eberbody poopies.

JulieCVICURN, BSN, RN · Jul 6, 2011

6 month old (or greater!) unwashed cooch!
Gawd! Bad enough you gotta clean it... then you gotta get personal to throw that foley in...
And naturally, most of these pts. are demented LOLs with altered anatomy and the strength and resistance requiring the services of a football team to hold 'em down!

Oh my god, yes! The unwashed cooch is the WORST! I had to put a foley in a man once who smelled like he must have had his MI during a sex act and got brought in without a wipedown because it was like monkey house at the zoo all up in his crotch. Bleh.

I am not trying to be mean, I just wanna know why poop is so important? When I wanted to be a nurse, I didn't even think about it.

Because poop is disgusting. Come on. It kills me when people respond to questions about poop as if they're surprised anyone would be disgusted or concerned about how much of it they're going to encounter. When you're new or haven't started school, or have just started clinicals, poop avoidance is pretty damn high on the radar. That's perfectly normal. Frankly, I'd be a little concerned about anyone who jumped right in as if the smell of **** didn't bother them in the least. Yes, you put on a happy face for the patient, but anyone who has their first encounter with a ****** mess that doesn't get a little bit shell shocked is pretty suspicious to me.

Now, do I worry about poop if a patient is in distress or coding? No way, and I don't think about it much at all nowadays anyway unless it's GI bleed and then even the strongest of us have trouble not turning up our noses. But if you surveyed the general first semester nursing student, I'd bet you a far greater number have adverse feelings about cleaning up **** than don't care about it at all.

onedayitllbeme · Jul 6, 2011

true , that was what I was kind of getting at with the critical thinking piece. Great to know though that nurses are almost always using those skills.

better question would be: What percentage of your job required a "College Education"; especially those with shiny new 4 year Degrees
and what percentage of your Job where you like "I needed to go to college to do this"?

netglow, ASN, RN · Jul 6, 2011

JulieCVICURN, you are way more inappropriate than me. I get edited for the letter "s" followed by 3 ***. But you are just plain :barf02: The poor OP is going to have nightmares. Plus she is already looking up "interior design" on her local college website after reading your post. :lol2:

...talkin about decreasing the surplus nursing population :smokin:

Rob72, ASN, RN · Jul 6, 2011

The first nurse that comes and posts that poop doesn't really happen when they work because someone else takes care of that stuff, may you get 6 Cdiff patients tomorrow. May a bloated yak change the temperature of your jacuzzi, May you walk a mile under a diseased camel...

Bwahahaha! I'm research! I haven't seen poop in 6 years, unless it was voluntary. (Clinicals don't count.)

Seriously, everyone is different. Poop, bloody, liquid, necrotic, foreign recreational materials, etc., doesn't bother me nearly as much as a soupy cannister of sputum. My wife (RT) runs suction until it sounds like a six year old sucking spaghetti and collects gray-green hawkers, without a problem. Blood or diarhhea- she runs.

I was hired as a "non-degreed professional", and finally got my ADN to set my ceiling a little higher. Eventually, I'll probably have to BSN-it also. My personal perspective is that critical thinking is a way of life, not a professional tool. IMO, much of what you're taught is useless crap, the rest you will apply as you assess your experiences and find the appropriate applications.

BTW, Julie, shaving creme is the best cure for The Stank. Wipe-on, wipe-off. :smokin:

Picklefreak · Jul 6, 2011

I'm in cardiac/ tele, and it totally depends on the day. I have shifts where I have all ambulatory, otherwise healthy people who are capable of handling their own toileting and hygiene. I have other shifts where I have several immobile people who are incontinent of bowel. Or you can get someone with c-diff or some other source of diarrhea. At this point, the poop doesn't bother nearly as much as having to wear an isolation gown in an 80 degree room while cleaning it up. :lol

JulieCVICURN, BSN, RN · Jul 6, 2011

JulieCVICURN, you are way more inappropriate than me.

Never said you were, or that I wasn't.

JulieCVICURN, BSN, RN · Jul 6, 2011

BTW, Julie, shaving creme is the best cure for The Stank. Wipe-on, wipe-off.

Oh, I know! That stuff is a lifesaver!

Jenni811, RN · Jul 6, 2011

Is this a serious question??? Who the heck cares what percentage of my job involves poop. Its different everyday. that's like asking someone who works at McDonalds "what percentage of customers order a milkshake everyday because i don't like making milkshakes"

Just like nursing...sometimes i'll have 4 patients that can toliet themselves, sometimes i'll have 4 patients that ALL just recieved some sort of colon clense or suppository and are on bed rest and im cleaning poop all day. It really just varies, yes i've had days where i don't clean any poop....and i've also had days where i feel like all i did.

You really try to break it up. If a patient is bed ridden i'll get help from my Aide to clean up the patient so its not like you are the only one doing it.

So really...i can't say an actual percentage but if you really really are that desperate for numbers i'd say in a 12 hour shift i spend on average maybe all together an hour per day cleaning patients after they have a bowel movement. Maybe only 20 minutes of wiping etc. (that 1 hour i included is changing sheets, getting new gowns, getting wash cloths etc.).