Poop in nursing

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I am an RN. My niece is 18 and hoping to go to nursing school. Recently she told me that there will be no poop cleaning at her nursing school or in the hospital she plans to work in. "I am not going to be THAT kind of nurse. I won't have to change adult diapers."

I was shocked when I heard this! Why had I and all of my nursing coworkers chosen "poop" nursing schools! Where is this special poop free hospital?

Specializes in Transitional Nursing.
Now now, let's be nice. OP's niece might have a physical aversion to poop. She could always go to this poop-free nursing school then become a case manager or maybe even a CNO, there are after all nursing jobs that are poopless. And obviously easy to get straight out of nursing school.

Maybe she will have patients who don't poop! I knew a guy once......

:-p

Just wait til she's suctioning trachs and putting NG tubes to drain obstructed patients. Projectile vomiting from esophageal varices and melena. That should be fun. I'm a Registered nurse from the UK. I heard we are more "hands on" there but I haven't started working here yet to be able to compare. I will be really upset if I don't get as much 1 on 1 and personal care time with my patients. I like to know all about them. At he end of the day. I'm the one held accountable.

[shrugs] I got broken in as an 18-year-old CNA in an assisted living facility. One of my residents (the sweetest little demented lady) had a colostomy that exploded regularly. After that experience, nothing bothers me except watching an arterial line draw.

Nothing against the OP's niece, but unless she has a genuine phobia of human feces, she'll have to get used to cleaning up disgusting things. I know not every RN job involves body wastes, but it does seem that most RN jobs require you to put in your time on the hospital floor before they'll accept you. It seems a bit prissy to draw the line at cleaning up waste, especially when the alternatives are to hand the job on to overloaded CNAs or to leave the patient sitting in their own filth.

Specializes in kids.

Poop cleaning is within the scope of our practice.

This made me laugh out loud!!!! :roflmao:

This is a true fact!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Specializes in Emergency Nursing.

When I was a student I honestly believed I would never get used to inserting urinary catheters.

Guess what...

...I did.

The millenium generation kids expect their iPhone to do everything for them. Please discourage her while you can before she becomes one of those miserable nurses that we unfortunately come across almost on a daily basis. I have disimpacted patients with my digits and I am not talking about 1, 2,3,......

I'm 27 and considered a "millenial" (1981+ 200ish?).. not ALL of us are like that.. I cringe when we're grouped like that. I worked in a group home and have been cleaning poop since I was 18! We had one resident who spite pooped on us.. yeah.. spite poop. That's the top right there. I have no issues cleaning poop! I even keep peppermint oil on me to put around my nostrils after offensive odors. It is what it is.. but you know.. not ALL of us are bad :D

Specializes in Case mgmt., rehab, (CRRN), LTC & psych.
The millenium generation kids expect their iPhone to do everything for them. Please discourage her while you can before she becomes one of those miserable nurses that we unfortunately come across almost on a daily basis. I have disimpacted patients with my digits and I am not talking about 1, 2,3,......
I'm a Millennial and I've never owned an iPhone or expect to take the easy way out. I'm not one of those 'failure to launch' cases, either. I work on an acute rehab unit where I manually disimpact patients regularly and assist them with their bowel routines.

I've met some nurses from the Baby Boomer generation who epitomized pure laziness. People with poor work ethics come in all ages, so please do not generalize. Thank you!

Let's see, my shift yesterday: One disimpaction, helped the CNA's with several bathroom trips, 2 dulcolax suppositories, and one pt. with C.diff.

All I can do is LOL.

Specializes in Emergency/Cath Lab.

Might want to send her this link

Everyone Poops - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Specializes in Psychiatry.

I take back what I said StudentRN313

You know.. I am beginning my nursing program this fall and I will admit, I was the dummy that did not think that I would deal much with poop (thank goodness I never said that out loud to anyone-- saves me from eating my words:cautious:), but after reading this and other threads like this, I went through some phases-- Shock:eek:, Temporary Denial :no:, Worry :nailbiting:, Careful Thinking:unsure:, and finally acceptance :yes:. I know I can do it! And someone put it into perspective for me so well. Consider you patients-- consider how horrified they feel being in that position to need you to handle that for them. Do not make faces or noises! That would be TERRIBLE for a patient! If we are truly about caring for and helping other people we must accept that it's not always going to be comfortable or fun or glorious. Sometimes, maybe a lot of times even, it's going to be humbling too. And, crazy as it may sound, I'm looking forward to that.

I am an RN who cleans poop everyday that I work. Usually more than twice a day. I have met some nurses who think they are above that and that it's cna work. Poop cleaning is within the scope of our practice. Many nurses will initiate the students by having them do incontinence care often.

I can attest to that! During fundamentals all we did the entire clinical rotation was pt. care. And boy did we deal with bodily fluids! When the pct's & lvn's saw us coming they gladly handed over all the lovely work to us nursing students. The first meds we learned about first hand were senokot & docusate.

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