what percentage of your job involves poop?

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Also what percentage of your job do you have to use critical thinking skills; assessing a patient, acting fast, anything other than routine, nothing to learn type of situations (that you might or might not enjoy as well)

Just wondering. Just a pre-nursing student that wants to change change careers, but once in a while questions myself.

Thanks!

Specializes in Operating Room.

Hard to say what percentage of my job involves poop because I can go weeks without seeing Code Brown, and then I have a day where all my patients seem to be pooping themselves during surgery.

Also, you get used to blood in the OR so that doesn't even factor in for me anymore. As far as critical thinking and thinkingon my feet, that's every day.

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Even if you aren't cleaning it up, every day you should be thinking about it. Every single pt gets asked when was the last time you pooped, and if you haven't in awhile...I'm going to do my darndest to make you. If the pt is too altered to tell me, as soon as I can look it up, I do. Part of nursing is to ensure positive pt outcomes, and preventing postop constipation and ileus is just that. Pt's that become suddenly immobile, or are suddenly put on bedrest have a tendency also to become constipated. Prevention is key, because n/v, NG tubes and surgery really suck.

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Specializes in Med/Surg, DSU, Ortho, Onc, Psych.
Scenario:

You are an OR nurse. A 48 yo WM has just been emergently posted for an exploratory laparotomy for a GSW. Your 0.5 second assessment is that he is clammy, pallor is pale, not responding to commands, and your surgeon is pouring betadine on the abdomen as soon as the pt's backside hits the OR table. You help the anesthesia care provider with induction and intubation. Suddenly the pt spikes a temp, HR goes through the roof, and his muscles start to go rigid. You correctly identify that the pt has malignant hyperthermia. You could not possibly have known from his family hx that his father also has a hx of MH because the pt was brought in emergently.

The feces have officially hit the fan in a most explosive fashion.

Another scenario:

State budget cuts mandate that all nurses that work in a state hospital must take a "furlough" that will take one week's pay out of your pocket. Your nurse manager addresses the staff at a meeting to discuss this issue, stating that it is our duty as the residents of the state to 'take one for the team' and goes on about how nurses are an asset to society, how we can get through this is we all think positively, and how we need to be strong for one another. You must now clean the poop out of your pants as you frantically think of creative ways to feed your family for the next month.

There is a lot of poop in our profession. But thankfully, poop can be cleaned up.

Love this!

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Specializes in Med/Surg, DSU, Ortho, Onc, Psych.

I'm a shift coordinator so don't clean poo now and am moving out of nursing soon anyway. But you can clean it up all the time on any ward, it depends on the patient, the ward, the day. Even in the ED/ER once we had a full moon, and everyone seemed to be full of pooh, though thankfully, most could go to the toilet, which was worse cos they sometimes needed 2 people 2 take them.

I've worked on wards where we were practically swimming in the stuff, it's got all over my shoes, I've had it thrown at me, I've had to clean it up in the corridor too. Thank God those days are (nearly) over.

As I've said with giving blood issues, if you do not like cleaning pooh or people who have pooh all over them (or yourself covered in pooh) don't work in nursing. You will only be making more complicated issues for urself & everyone else.

And if I'm the shift coordinator, do NOT come onto a ward and tell me you do not clean up pooh - because I will be less than impressed and I will make you do it!

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if you do not like cleaning pooh or people who have pooh all over them (or yourself covered in pooh) don't work in nursing. You will only be making more complicated issues for urself & everyone else.

And if I'm the shift coordinator, do NOT come onto a ward and tell me you do not clean up pooh - because I will be less than impressed and I will make you do it!

some people like cleaning poop? like just for the specific task? I never considered that. I mean I understood that there are reasons you want your patient to poop so you might be happy when he/she poops, but I never knew there was someone that went into nursing because among other things they liked cleaning poop.

Just curious, has that ever happened? I can't imagine being a nurse and telling other people I do not clean up poop.. that blows my mind. How can you sign up for this job and refuse to do one of the tasks required?

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Specializes in CVICU.

You'd be surprised at how many get very good at hiding when a Code Brown happens. They get suddenly busy, or disappear. They may not outright refuse, but believe me, we all know who the ones are who don't clean up or help others do it.

Also, I can't help it - when you spell poo with an "h", I keep picturing someone wiping down a dusty Pooh Bear.

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Specializes in Peds/outpatient FP,derm,allergy/private duty.
. . .Also, I can't help it - when you spell poo with an "h", I keep picturing someone wiping down a dusty Pooh Bear.

Whereas I pictured a zombie horde of "full of it" people lurching toward carol's ED/ER when there was a full moon. I'm sure a shrink would have something to say to me about that, not sure I want to hear it. :)

some people like cleaning poop? like just for the specific task? I never considered that. I mean I understood that there are reasons you want your patient to poop so you might be happy when he/she poops, but I never knew there was someone that went into nursing because among other things they liked cleaning poop.

I think she meant "don't like" as opposed to feeling neutral or mildly disturbed, but you never know . . .:uhoh21:

There are quite a few nurses who love to incise and drain huge purulent abcesses, the nastier the better. If the material shoots out --- oops not gonna go there . .

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Specializes in Intensive Care.

I love this! It's not a shift if I don't find myself cleaning poop at least 2 or 3 times each night. And there's many times that poop involves critical thinking...how do I get the poop off of this 300 lb patient without getting it on these clean linens I just put on the bed for the 3rd time tonight?

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No such thing as percentages.

Rather, things come in "streaks". No pun intended.I can go days without seeing poop , then the you-know -what will hit the fan.

Last night , I had to stay over to dis-impact a patient. Definitely one the nastier nursing chores, but my patient loved me.:D

Breath through your mouth, nasty odors will not be detectable.

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