Poop Free Nursing Jobs in the Hospital?

[IcySageNurse]

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! :)

[teiladay]

What are you going to do if you come across something else you don't like on your path to becoming an NP? You can't just expect to not have to deal with something just because you don't like it. Lots of us don't like stuff (poop included ) but learning to deal is part of being a grown up.You sound like you are very young and are used to having people make the bad stuff just "go away". The real issue isn't about the poop. it's about the fact you are unable( and unwilling to try) to cope with something just because you don't like it.How far are you going to get if your attitude is that if you don't like something you will just refuse to deal with it?

I think this is the kind of response the OP was trying to avoid. There are many things that people don't like doing (in many occupations), but will do it in school because they know they won't have to do it in the particular job they want in the first place. If the OP "comes across" something that she doesn't particularly like in NP school, she will simply make that decision whether that "something" is a deal breaker, or just a "something" that she has to put up with in school knowing full well that it's not something that she'll have to deal with (or only minimally so) on the job. Too easy a decision to make and I'm sure the OP is smart enough to make such a simple decisions for herself. That's not what she's asking, neither what's important.

It's remarkable how so many "smiley faces" and statements of 'how no disrespect is meant to those in xyz types of nursing' often written is a pretext to questions, just so the respective OP doesn't offend, or hurt people's feelings. Get over it. The OP asked a simple question that is not only very reasonable, but very important since a lot of nurses, nursing students, and prospective nursing students often ask and wonder.

Cleaning up poo isn't for everyone (whether you do it or not is immaterial) and frankly, many excellent nurses seek out jobs where they don't have to deal with the stuff, just like many excellent attorneys, physicians, pilots, etc., only engage in practice that caters to what they like, despite having to have a well-rounded exposure while in law/med/flight/nursing, etc., school, where they had to deal with stuff they didn't like. That doesn't make them any less of a professional, and sometimes makes them better at what they do because they essentially become subject matter experts at doing they type of work that they love. Different strokes for different folks, what difference does it make to me? None, as long as you're competent and happy, then I'm happy for ya!

Some nurses don't like cleaning poo, but do it because that's part of the job. Other nurses don't like cleaning poo and are able to circumvent doing so by circumventing the jobs most apt to have to deal with such. What the OP is asking is what nursing jobs *essentially* don't involve poop, but will hone the OPs skill set needed for FNP/NP.

Here's what I would do if I was the OP.

I'd skip the floor nursing, etc., because I don't think there's a significant advantage to enduring that type of work if you're intent is to be a FNP. I think the OP would get far more mileage out of going directly to NP school, and soaking up as much info as possible from other NPs in the area of practice that the OP wants to engage in, as well as physicians and physician assistants in that area of practice.

I think the OP would best benefit herself positioning herself in an environment where she is gaining knowledge mostly from the practice of medicine and is surrounded by those either practicing medicine (physicians) or as close to it w/out running afoul of the license (practicing FNP'ers), as opposed to the daily trappings of traditional floor nursing.

It should go without saying that all of us respect the opinions and work of others. I don't think less of a nursing student that loath's the thought of floor nursing but is excited about working a 9-5 in family clinic, breast augmentation clinic, etc.. No more than loathing an attorney for only wanting simple tort cases and never setting foot a courthouse- No more than a med student not considering primary care based on pay alone... No more than an excellent test pilot who can't navigate from here to there worth a flip, but can analyze every inch of the aircraft in flight better than the best... no, I don't turn my nose up at such, because that would be petty and just silly. Different people excel in different areas and many are smart enough to know whether or not they're wasting their time pursuing a traditional route just because it's what everyone else does.

Because a person doesn't like what I like, or isn't willing to put up with what I might put up with, hardly means that person's priorities, dedication or sense of reality is compromised.

The OP asked a reasonable question that has realistic avenues she can take dependent on the type of nursing that she wants to engage in.

Best of the day to everyone

[wannabecnl]

How about asking some NP students or NPs what they feel would be (or would have been) the best experience? I don't see how most of the poop-free areas of nursing would contribute that much to being an FNP; all you'd be doing is "doing time" for the application process, but I don't think it would make it easier. For example, I work in the PACU; we don't have a lot of poo, but we deal with such a narrow segment of time and care with each patient that I don't know if any of it would translate. When we do have someone who is incontinent, our LNA discreetly slips by with the peppermint oil spray and spritzes it on the curtains! Sure, you could work in PACU or dialysis or whatever, but I don't see how that would be as beneficial to an NP as working in the office setting. What about a clinic/community nursing? More variety, less poo?

I sympathize with you; I've said that I can stand a patient pooping on me, peeing on me, barfing on me, bleeding on me, etc., but I freaking HATE COUGHING. Even dry coughing gets me on edge, but a nice, juicy, productive cough with sputum that can actually be described as something other than spit ("tenacious" is my personal favorite) makes me want to hurl or run for cover. Of course, in PACU, I make my patients cough, but that's not the same as a patient hacking away for hours on end! I blame it on having bronchitis for a couple months in college; all I did was cough all night long. I had a patient this week who coughed for the first hour he was with me, and I almost went crazy! But that doesn't happen all the time, and I love my job otherwise so I put up with it.

[PrimeTimeJrod]

Maybe work NICU? Baby poop is so much more benign than adults...

Winner Winner, Chicken Dinner!

[AtomicWoman]

OP, I am a primary care NP. I never worked in an acute hospital as an RN, but I did work in rehab. I can tell you this: if you want to really learn about primary care, take advantage of where you are *now*. Find a way to read charts/EMRs, lab reports, imaging reports; read, read, read CONSULT notes from every kind of specialty. Notice how practitioners treat/manage certain conditions, what drugs they use, what they do when they see an abnormal lab result, etc. Ask the docs and/or NPs you work with if you can shadow them a few hours a day or one day a week or a couple days a month. Ask them as many questions as you can think of; most people like showing off what they know. :) Read any and all medical journals that come into the office. Subscribe to the daily email from journalwatch.org (it's free). Not only will you not be at a disadvantage in NP school, you will actually be at an *advantage*.

Trust me on this: the most important knowledge I accumulated prior to becoming a licensed NP was what I learned by working with my excellent MSN/NP clinical instructors (which included a physician, too). If you really want to be an FNP, you are already "home" and you are already in the place you need to be. Good luck in your career, and welcome to the Passionate About Primary Care Club. :)

[judihh]

When I first started the clinical part of nursing, I was to rub a pt's back in a ortho unit to prevent skin breakdown. I did not realize this involved the whole back including the buttock area. I was flabbergasted---was this expected of me? It was, and I was to go on doing other things which might make one cringe. After 47 years of nursing----not all full time, I cannot think of another profession so demanding yet so fulfilling. You will find your place, just do what is expected of you each day, and one day it will all mesh into a wonderful whole. Good luck!

[nrsang97, BSN, RN]

Meriwhen..

LOL!!! i so agree!!! When I worked inpsych, I have had poo handed to me, smeared everywhere and eaten by patients!! NEVER a dull moment!

OP---I understand as I really really really cant handle eyeball things....enucleations, fake eyes, eyes with large foreign objects inserted(like pencils, etc). I;m fine with eye drops, opintments, etc., but nothing invasive, and Lord help me if i need cataract surgery!!!!

As a new CNA, eons ago, I had so much trouble with cleaning vomit, that another Cna and I traded off--I would do her super smelly poopoos, if she would clean the vomit, and it worked very well!!!

now, I can handle any of these, I may gag with the vomiting, but I can handle it!

Best wishes....

I hate things in the eye with passion. I could never work in an eye clinic or assist with eye surgery. God help me if I have to have eye surgery myself.

I hate NG tube insertion as well. At least I don't gag anymore while putting one in.

There isn't really anywhere acute care that is totally poop free. If you want poop free then maybe out patient surgery is for you. Pre op or post op. PACU is a good option. Interventional radiology is good too.

[NurseDragon1]

I work in a county jail. Way way way less poopy than working in med-surg in a hospital, in fact, while there may be inmates with mental health issues, if they smear poop around their cell or do anything else poopy, other inmates (trustees) are the ones who clean it up, NOT nurses.

[jes822]

Whoever's poop you are cleaning wish you didn't have to clean their poop more than you do. Get over it.

[JenTheSchoolRN, BSN, RN]

I hate things in the eye with passion. I could never work in an eye clinic or assist with eye surgery. God help me if I have to have eye surgery myself.

Eyes are my "ick" thing, too. I admitted this to my first clinical instructor, who then admitted she was the same way! And she worked in an ER and had to deal with many eye issues; it took her a while and she still admitted to requesting back-up from another nurse for foreign objects in the eye (she repays the favor). I've gotten better with eyes, but still have to brace myself when I may have to indirectly graze the eyeball.

I think every nurse has one area that he or she still cringe a little inside at.

Still, it is hard to avoid poo. (And yes, my mind also went the Scrubs musical episode ). Still, you could try some areas of community nursing versus acute care; some have less poo and good assessment practice for NP learning. I'm a school nurse and work with grades 5 and up; not many times I've encountered poo (vomit and snot are a different story) and many of the assessment skills my NP classes are focusing on (I'm in a FNP program) I use on a daily basis with the students.

[AmandaPostPartumRN]

I work in post partum and the poo is minimal. However, meconium can be quite messy. At least it is for the most part odorless. Working in OB nursing there are definitely other gross things you may have issues with. I take care of antepartum patients with various problems. Number one would be hyperemesis gravidarium. Lots of puke, although we usually can fix that problem. Sometimes lady partsl discharge can be gross. Nursing is gross. The best thing about post partum is you get to be a part of your patient's miracle. You get to help ease their fears and teach them so much about the joy of being a mom. It is definitely my niche. I don't ENJOY the gross things about my job, but the benefits far outweigh the unpleasantries.

[learner1108]

When I was a youngster, as the oldest child in the family, I had to clean up our two cats' messes while they were learning about litter box. That was my mom's directive if we wanted the cats.

There is no way I ever got used to the smell, but this is what I did to make it possible:

First I put on cleaning gloves and laid two layers of paper towels over the whole liquid/solid mess to lessen the smell. Then I used two more paper towels to scoop up one small part (with the original paper towels still on the mess). Threw that small scoop in a paper bag, two more paper towels to scoop up another small part, and continued the whole ritual until there was only the stain left. Sprayed the remaining scum/stain with soap and water mixture, used two paper towels to wipe it up one portion at a time. When that was done, I wiped the whole area with soap& water and paper towels again.

I used the same technique when I worked on med-surg floor at the hospital. Patient in bed, poop pool around his lower body, gloves first, folded sheet over poop part, pad under patient, wiped patient from the outermost portion of poop toward inner most portion. Wiped as many times as needed. Used pads as needed to keep the pad under the patient's skin clean. Then I wiped bed under the sheet and patient, changed sheets (pts body still on pads), changed pads and wiped pts body a last time.

I nearly vomited each time a pt had an unexpected poop or vomit. I just got the smell covered as quickly as possible, then cleaned the patient. What got me through this was knowing how embarrassed and humiliated the patient might be.

I knew this because when I was a preteen, I had a serious GI problem. Had to wear diapers for the three days I was in hospital. Embarrassed beyond belief when the nurse had to come clean me and change diapers. Almost every nurse made a comment or had a look. I remembered my experience as a patient when I became a nurse, and I decided I would clean a patient as thoroughly, quickly and gently as possible without making faces or remarks.

They really don't teach us in nursing school any way to clean poop. Never came up in my studies, but I learned from my cats' experience. Just writing about it makes my stomach want to heave. Hope this helps some.

[mycallingKia]

I would recommend working in radiology, possibly labor and delivery, or any children's specialty to limit your exposure. Another alternative might be to work in a clinic or doctor's office.