Nursing isn't for you unless you can get over this.
Today, I carried away a bag (yes, a bag) of feces, helped clean another patient who soiled the bed x2, emptied 2 foley catheters of urine (multiple trips for each), suctioned my patients' mouths every two hours, did deep suction via ET tube every HOUR for one pt (dark yellow sputum), and every two hours for another (clear sputum).
On the pt with the clear sputum, I bathed him, changed his gown and bedding (since his skin is weeping so badly that it is felt through the glove and he gets multiple baths throughout the day), and did a dressing change including a wound that was weeping serosanguinous fluid.
My worst nursing day was taking care of a person with lower extremity wounds/ ulcers that had a wound so bad that I had to double-mask, gown and glove to treat. I spent over an hour on my knees in front of the pt (she wouldn't go to bed due to pain), and I could literally, on one leg, insert my hand between her calf and achilles tendon.
Nursing isn't pretty, and it isn't about money, and it isn't about "I think I can do it". Nursing is a career and a lifestyle all its own. It's either for you or not. Only you can decide.
