Okay, before anyone starts the insane spamming, please READ THE POST. This is not meant to demean or attack any nurses. I am an RN and I love nursing - and I respect everything that nurses do. I know that some people are also better at some things than others. This is meant to be a very respectful post simply asking for some help and advice, so please do not start attacking and saying that I don't "understand" what nursing is. Thank you in advance! :)
Here's the issue: I started a job right out of nursing school with a hospital. I stayed for a few months, but I literally used to want to cry every day that I went. I wasn't overwhelmed by the responsibility or the new things I needed to learn (I actually enjoyed that)...it was the "cleaning" part of our job description. I know it's part of nursing, and I certainly cleaned my patients quickly and extremely well, but not without gagging. I can't help it. I truly find it very disgusting cleaning someones watery feces off of their back, butt, and bed. Everytime I smelled that horrible smell I became sick to my stomach knowing what I was about to have to do. It controlled my life and I was so unhappy I quit.
Fast forward: I work in a primary care office. I love it! No poop, normal hours, etc. I also have developed a passion for family practice, and with so many physicians choosing to specialize instead of work in FP, I see how important NPs will be as more and more Americans are insured under current laws. I want to help fill that void. I could easily go to NP school now, but I feel NPs were developed to expand on their current clinical experience. While I love my job, I honestly don't learn much about medicine, it's mainly vitals and scheduling, etc. I feel to truly become a competent NP and provide high quality care to my patients, I need to work in a hospital environment for a few years so that I can manage my own patients and learn about their conditions and treatments. This of course is an issue considering my previous experience with this...so what can I do??
Any advice? I really need some help here, not 3-4 pages of insults about how I should just learn to love cleaning up poop. I will never love it, and I don't have to love it to be a good nurse. I do respect all of you that do, however, and I'm sure your patients do too! :)
I got the impression the OP felt that she ought to have such experience in order to advance her career.
I think she feels that she needs bedside nursing experience in order to be a better NP. I don't recall her saying she wanted or needed ICU experience. Certainly that's not a very realistic stance given that cleaning up poop on any more than a rare occasion is a deal breaker for her.
a. Bedside experience is useful but not essential to becoming an NP
b. There are few to no bedside jobs that do not require poop cleaning, at least occasionally
c. There are other nursing career paths outside of bedside that can be as fulfilling, rewarding and necessary
Is there anything else that needs to be said on this topic?
Oh, yeah, I'll add that you can't always predict where your career will end up. I'd have been totally fine with poop, not loving it but dealing with it, but bedside was just not in the cards for me.
Everything comes down to poo. I'm sorry. I just couldn't resist. I work in LTC as a manager and still do not escape it. Also planning for NP and thought is be better off back on a floor of the local hospital- but I like where I am. If you're not dealing with patient poo, you just end up with more "figurative poo" like drama, staffing, politics, meetings. Everything comes down to poo.
Find a hospital with a cancer center attached and work in the infusion room. It's usually outpatient. Your patients will come in with clothes on, can walk to the bathroom by themselves, and leave in a few hours or less - you just give them chemo and assess while it's running, and that's all. However, to work in the infusion room where I work you need at least a year of experience on the regular oncology floor, so you have to go through poop to get there.
Here's a bit of a different tactic, and I'm really not trying to open another debate, but with all the direct entry MSNs around now (and I have a plethora of opinions on that that I will leave out of this discussion) that require zero experience, isn't it reasonable to say one can graduate with an NP without ever having to deal heavily in the stuff??
Surely an RN with even six months' med-surg experience has had more code browns than someone who's gone straight through an MSN/NP track right off the sidewalk....flame away, but I'd bet it's true in many cases.
I wanted bedside. Bedside didnt want me. Since I was not about to throw away my hard earned license and education, I went to a (highly regarded) np program that didnt require nursing experience. I'm employed now as an np and I wipe no butts. Sorry, but I won't apologize for the decisions I was forced to make after not winning the new grad lottery.
Specializes in Pulmonary, Lung Transplant, Med/Surg.
I would like to know have any cna's had any success with as private duty nurse aides. If so how did you get started and what salary can one expect. I am interested in this occupation because i find that the ratio in nursing homes are not always compatable to state expectations.
I'm not sure this is where you should post this as the topic has nothing to do with your question....
@Jeanette: no one's asking you to apologize; that wasn't the point. I think you automatically assumed my opinions were completely negative - and they're not - they're far more convoluted than that.
Congratulations on your educational advancement, BTW.:)
@Jeanette: no one's asking you to apologize; that wasn't the point. I think you automatically assumed my opinions were completely negative - and they're not - they're far more convoluted than that.
Congratulations on your educational advancement, BTW.:)
Thanks :)
The search for my first nursing job was rather traumatizing and I do not say that to be melodramatic. Getting my masters was a second chance for which I'm grateful
Posting these comments is my way of letting go, I guess. Take that, nursing world!
My journey to becoming a nurse was completely unexpected. If someone told me that I was going to have to clean poop as a career, I would have thought they were crazy. Although I find it disgusting, I would much rather clean poop than deal with massive amounts of mucous. One thing that REALLY bothered me was emptying ostomy bags...but as many posters above said, it is really difficult to find a job in an acute care setting where you can avoid disgusting bodily fluids and functions. To become an FNP, there is not typically a requirement to have acute care experience. Being an NP is a different beast than nursing, so I would contact a school that you want to apply for and see if they highly recommend that you seek more of a 'nursing' job or not. Also, ask the docs that you work with for some advice as to whether they believe the job that you are at is not 'enough' clinical experience to start pursuing your dream of becoming a FNP. Good luck and don't feel bad-it is evolutionary ingrained in humans to not like poop!
Personally, I think you're pretty bad ass for not only being honest about how you feel, but also standing firm on what you want/don't want out of your chosen profession. I hate dealing with BMs too...maybe not to the extent you do (trach secretions top my list), but I feel sort of like "been there done that" and I'd prefer not to have another nursing job where cleaning stool is on the list of duties.
I now work in a PACU in an orthopedic surgery hospital. I haven't seen stool once since I began working there. Prior to this job, I worked as a CT nurse in a large cardiology practice pushing IV metoprolol and diltiazem while monitoring patients during cardiac CT scans. No poop there. Prior to that job, I worked in cath lab and EP lab. Nope, no poop there either. Prior to that job...the ICU. Yeah, my time with poop was frequent there, but what great experience I got!
Those are just some examples from my career. Also, you may want to consider nuclear medicine, interventional radiology, etc., and as a previous post or two I read recommended, the OR. Hope this helps! :)
Edited to add: Also, has ambulatory (outpatient) surgery already been mentioned?
I'm sorry. I just couldn't resist. I work in LTC as a manager and still do not escape it. Also planning for NP and thought is be better off back on a floor of the local hospital- but I like where I am. If you're not dealing with patient poo, you just end up with more "figurative poo" like drama, staffing, politics, meetings. Everything comes down to poo.
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Horseshoe, BSN, RN
5,879 Posts
I think she feels that she needs bedside nursing experience in order to be a better NP. I don't recall her saying she wanted or needed ICU experience. Certainly that's not a very realistic stance given that cleaning up poop on any more than a rare occasion is a deal breaker for her.