Question about nursing and RRT

[Ryan Walker]

Hi, my name is Ryan. I had some questions about mainly two professions. Respiratory therapy and Nursing. I have my associate degree (AGS) with a emphasis in nursing at a community college here in Oregon. I received this back in 2012 and I ended up moving to California for a bit to go to a bible college for 2 years. That experience was a blast! After finishing there, I decided to pursue my original career in nursing, but I am now having a few worries about this as my career. I am totally undecided, but I do know I want to work in the medical field. I know a lot of people dissect each sentence on these forums and answers little issues but if you could look at my overall questions without judgement, that would be appreciated. I would love to here the truth though without general statements about the careers! Okay, so basically my worries are... I don't know about nursing because of the c diff, BM, cleaning poop. I know everyone says to get over it, But I have been in multiple settings with family members in the hospital and I DO NOT like that smell, and I can not imagine cleaning. From you opinion do you think that because of that, nursing is not going to be the career for me? From my understanding most, jobs want 1-2years of acute care. It seems that you are going to get cleaning poop in most hospital jobs right? I seem to have a bit of anxiety at times when I have had job in the past and I hear nursing is stressful, for the most part. I know I didn't mention RRT much, but that is kind of the two careers I am looking into right now. Any advice or warnings would be appreciated! Oh and btw it's January 2016 and applications for programs are over the next few months from now till around may (the latest) here on the west coast (Texas, Oregon, Washington, California, Arizona)

[dream'n, BSN, RN]

You will have to deal with poop, there is no way around it. Even if you get an office type RN position immediately (unlikely), you'll have lots of poop to deal with in school. You'll also deal with lots of 'icky' bodily fluids and infectious diseases. Respiratory therapists have certainly been expanding their practice scope around my area lately, but again the smells will still be there along with sputum and infectious diseases. Have you thought of Radiology Therapy? Their pay isn't too bad and you could specialize, like in CT or Ultrasound??

[OBwonKnewbie]

OP, can I just clarify too that none of us *like* the smell of poop?.....we didn't become RNs because it's our dream to wipe poopy butts.....but we can get over it and do our jobs without gagging.

And poop isn't the only smelly fluid you deal with. Sputum can honestly be very smelly and disgusting as well, which is what an RRT deals with all the time.

Urine stinks. Vomit stinks. Amniotic fluid has a weird odor. Infected, necrotic wounds with puss can be absolutely wretched and make you wish you were smelling poop instead. Surgery even has it's gross smells, such as cauterizing flesh. If you choose any kind of bedside nursing there will absolutely be poop, urine, vomit, blood and surgical drainage. There will be necrotic toes/limbs, awful looking wounds, and clouds of skin dust that will have you holding your breath when you take off some elderly person's ted hose. There will be confused patients that cover their fingers in aforementioned fluids and then touch you because they don't know any better. Those same patients may have poop all under their fingernails and then guess who has to clean that? I've had patients accidently dump their urinal all over themselves or throw up all over their bed/floor. I see you mentioned c-diff, so you have thought about isolation procedures. This is nursing.

So, yes, if you can't get over these issues, then the medical field in general is not for you and you need to pick a new field. I bet you have a very kind heart, but you need a stronger stomach.

Maybe....possibly..... a radiology technician? I'm not sure if they deal with much urine/poop. I bet if they received a soiled patient they would ask a nurse to come down and clean them. But there will still be smells, vomit, patients with anxiety, etc.

[ED Nurse, RN]

OP, can I just clarify too that none of us *like* the smell of poop?.....we didn't become RNs because it's our dream to wipe poopy butts.....but we can get over it and do our jobs without gagging.

And poop isn't the only smelly fluid you deal with. Sputum can honestly be very smelly and disgusting as well, which is what an RRT deals with all the time.

Urine stinks. Vomit stinks. Amniotic fluid has a weird odor. Infected, necrotic wounds with puss can be absolutely wretched and make you wish you were smelling poop instead. Surgery even has it's gross smells, such as cauterizing flesh. If you choose any kind of bedside nursing there will absolutely be poop, urine, vomit, blood and surgical drainage. There will be necrotic toes/limbs, awful looking wounds, and clouds of skin dust that will have you holding your breath when you take off some elderly person's ted hose. There will be confused patients that cover their fingers in aforementioned fluids and then touch you because they don't know any better. Those same patients may have poop all under their fingernails and then guess who has to clean that? I've had patients accidently dump their urinal all over themselves or throw up all over their bed/floor. I see you mentioned c-diff, so you have thought about isolation procedures. This is nursing.

So, yes, if you can't get over these issues, then the medical field in general is not for you and you need to pick a new field. I bet you have a very kind heart, but you need a stronger stomach.

Maybe....possibly..... a radiology technician? I'm not sure if they deal with much urine/poop. I bet if they received a soiled patient they would ask a nurse to come down and clean them. But there will still be smells, vomit, patients with anxiety, etc.

Ugh necrotic wounds are the worst! Especially on the abdomen! Way worse than poop! What would you do if you saw your pt eating poop OP? Happens more frequently than you think! You need to shadow before setting your life on this path.

[Ryan Walker]

OP, can I just clarify too that none of us *like* the smell of poop?.....we didn't become RNs because it's our dream to wipe poopy butts.....but we can get over it and do our jobs without gagging.

And poop isn't the only smelly fluid you deal with. Sputum can honestly be very smelly and disgusting as well, which is what an RRT deals with all the time.

Urine stinks. Vomit stinks. Amniotic fluid has a weird odor. Infected, necrotic wounds with puss can be absolutely wretched and make you wish you were smelling poop instead. Surgery even has it's gross smells, such as cauterizing flesh. If you choose any kind of bedside nursing there will absolutely be poop, urine, vomit, blood and surgical drainage. There will be necrotic toes/limbs, awful looking wounds, and clouds of skin dust that will have you holding your breath when you take off some elderly person's ted hose. There will be confused patients that cover their fingers in aforementioned fluids and then touch you because they don't know any better. Those same patients may have poop all under their fingernails and then guess who has to clean that? I've had patients accidently dump their urinal all over themselves or throw up all over their bed/floor. I see you mentioned c-diff, so you have thought about isolation procedures. This is nursing.

So, yes, if you can't get over these issues, then the medical field in general is not for you and you need to pick a new field. I bet you have a very kind heart, but you need a stronger stomach.

Maybe....possibly..... a radiology technician? I'm not sure if they deal with much urine/poop. I bet if they received a soiled patient they would ask a nurse to come down and clean them. But there will still be smells, vomit, patients with anxiety, etc.

Yeah, that's a lot of stuff I didn't even know about... I am looking into other careers like PTA at this point. I think they should be dealing with less of that, if any for the most part.

[KelRN215, BSN, RN]

If poop bothers you try a trach that is spewing phlegm and nastiness across the room- for some reason typically with 100% accuracy in hitting someone.

I once read a joke that the way to tell the difference between a nurse and a respiratory therapist is to put them up to their necks in poop then throw snot at them. The nurse will duck.

[chacha82, ADN, BSN]

Make sure the job marked for RT is viable where you are, or start researching where you want to move. There are not an overabundance of jobs for RTs where I live, even though we have 2 large hospitals within 10 miles of each other. Where I went to school I quickly got to know the RT staff as there were only a handful at the hospital. Most RT schools are demanding and you will not be able to work more than part-time hours if at all during the programs. If you already have a degree in nursing, it isn't really cost effective to go back to school for RT, to be honest with you. If your heart is in it that is another story, but why not try to work as a nurse for awhile and see about that before spending more money on another degree? No one LIKES poop, really. Keeping patients free of infection is one of the most important things we do, so we clean it up. Mucus plugs (you will see those in RT) can be just as bad, as can suctioning.

[sallyrnrrt, ADN, RN]

I definitely want more of a varied option for future advancement in the career, so that's why nursing sound better. Are you a nurse or RRT? If so, do you see a certain type of personality in either of the fields?

I am boyh, a RN got 42+years, and RRT since 2005..... They complimented knowledge base in both...

i prefer the the nurse model....

hope

that it helps....both have their benefits

[calivianya, BSN, RN]

I have seen multiple intubations on people with bowel obstructions that ended up with the patient spewing liquid feces out of his/her mouth while RT was trying to intubate.

Same deal with codes. Even if people are not vomiting feces while they are being intubated, if a patient with a bowel obstruction is receiving chest compressions, those feces are going to be under pressure - and since they can't make it out of the patient's butt, they're going to make it out of the patient's mouth. As an RT, you're going to be the one standing at the head of the bed bagging the patient while the poop is fountaining out of the patient's mouth.

I filled up three suction canisters with vomited feces once. Our suction canisters can hold 1500 mls of fluid, so you can imagine the overwhelming amount of fecal vomit during that code.

Your job might not officially involve cleaning poop as a RT, but odds are you will still get some sprayed on you at some point anyway, and you will definitely have to smell it even if you don't have to touch it.

[calivianya, BSN, RN]

Yeah, that's a lot of stuff I didn't even know about... I am looking into other careers like PTA at this point. I think they should be dealing with less of that, if any for the most part.

If you mean physical therapy assistant, you might want to reconsider that too.

I worked as a CNA in an inpatient hospital-based rehab while I was in nursing school. I loved working day shift because when the patient was in PT, if the patients pooped all over themselves, PT cleaned it up. PT cleaned a lot of poop because patients had physical therapy sessions shortly after meals, and eating more food stimulated the digestive tract. Sometimes, with the really huge 400+ pound patients, PT would call us to help clean the patient up, but PT still had their hands in there doing the cleaning as well.

[sallyrnrrt, ADN, RN]

I am both a RRT and RN

i have been a RN for over four decades and my opportunities, and work achievements were without limit.

i have been a RRT since 2005.... I do prefer nursing, but both foundations enhance each other....

[CNC_1989]

Have you thought about radiology tech? In my state after completing a program and gaining some experience you can go back to school for nuclear medicine.

[OBwonKnewbie]

Yeah, that's a lot of stuff I didn't even know about... I am looking into other careers like PTA at this point. I think they should be dealing with less of that, if any for the most part.

I think you REALLY need to shadow someone in these positions for more than 1 day and see what it is really like. PTA (i'm guessing you mean physical therapy assistant) have to deal with smelly things too. First of all, have you ever been on a med/surg unit in a hospital? Or in a nursing home? These places are kinda smelly. I could be wrong, but I would think this is where a majority of PTAs work, especially newly trained ones. You will still have to deal with incontinent patients that may be odorous of stool and seeing Foley bags. The patient's may very well be clean when you start working with them and then have a BM once they are in the hall. You will have to help them back to their room. You may stop by to see if a patient v is ready for therapy and they will be on a bed side commode. You will still have patients that have wounds, and some wounds smell through the dressing. If dry flaky skin creeps you out there will still be that. True, you won't be the one cleaning these smelly things but they will still be there while you are working with the patient. I have even seen PT help my male patients use the urinal. Are you ok with that?

I'm really most familiar with hospitals, but I think a PTA could possibly work in an outpatient rehab setting? I would think this may be hard to do as a new grad as those kinds of positions are most likely taken by seasoned PTAs. Also im sure in PTA school that you will have to work in hospitals and long term care settings, and you may not be happy with the smells.

Regardless, please shadow a PTA somewhere and ask them ask these questions before you spend money doing something that you think is different than it is. Good luck!