mandypants08

Thanks for all the responses, it was very helpful, all the posts mentioned things I didn't think about. Especially 87RN you mentioned many things I didn't consider. RNsRWe to answer your question more specifically we were assigned a block of rooms and were able to choose from that, we only got that luxury about mid way through the program, in the beginning we were assigned patients. Anyway thanks again everyone for taking time to answer my questions, much appreciated!

Hello, so I'm a pretty new RN I graduated about a year ago then worked in the ED for about 8 months. I left a few months ago because I wanted to move into critical care my goal was get a job in the IMC and transfer to ICU eventually when I felt competent in critical care. So I got hired in the IMC and start soon, anyway onto the question. I didn't deal much with poop in the ED for obvious reasons mostly b/c you have the pt for 2-3 hours. I also didn't deal with much poop in nursing school b/c we were able to choose our pt's, so it baffled me when classmates chose incontinent people, I didn't do that. I hear so much about nurses and techs just swimming in poop all day on "the floors" but it also sounds like rectal tubes are pretty rare. Why is this? If someone is having even one loose stool an hour that seems like an indication for one...right? This isn't laziness talking imagine how uncomfortable it is to POOP on yourself and have to lay in it not to mention skin break down. Also the resources it takes to keep changing someone, staff, linens, time, etc. just seems impractical. And when I say lay in it I mean b/c it's not like you can be there the instant someone poops you might be in another room doing something for 20 mins. So why aren't rectal tubes more common? And nurses when do you draw the line and ask an MD for a rectal tube?