"I don't want to do bed side nursing"...SAY WHAT!

Nurses General Nursing

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had a couple different nursing students say: "well, i'm going to school so i don't have to do bed side nursing". one even told me she want to work in plastic surg. office, not at the bed side. o.k. , i'm an "old nurse...47 yrs old", but when i went to nursing school in the 80's , we knew we knew we would most likley have to work our way into other areas of nursing after some experience in an acute care facility or some other such place. i hate to sound like i want to eat my young but, a part of me wants to see these new nurses go through the ranks like many of us did. not because i want to see them go through he double thooth picks, but because i feel , taking care of pateints, hands on , learning orginizational skills, pt. asses. , are the best way to learn nursing skills. as a critical care nurse of 27 years, i continue to be amazed at how much i can find out about a pt. during a bath and bed change. we have beds that turn, vents that suction, monitors that alert a critical care team half way across the city, bells, beeps and whistles,,,,what ever happened to good old hands on. i think it is funny that a nursing student thinks if she goes to a plastic surg. office she will only see tummy tucks, face lifts and boob jobs. she's forgetting the big ugly draining wounds , burns, and amputations etc..these office settings see. would love to be a fly on the wall when she takes care of her first pt. with these things and says......"oh my gosh, a plastic surg. takes care of these people too...!" guess i'll go into dermatology.... ha , if you've been around the block you know what awaits her there too. hee heee....but i swear i don't like to eat my young !:lol2: :rotfl: :clown: :lol2: :lol2: :uhoh3:

In Aust you won't get a position anywhere as a nurse unless you have at least 12 months of critical care/med/surg experience. It is not a matter of being judgemental, it is the reality of life sometimes that you have to confront.

I think at times some people who go into nursing have this wonderful, dreamy ideal that they will do as little as is required as possible to get their degree/diploma (whatever it is in the US), then float into a wonderfully quiet doctor's office, where you see smiling children all day and pleasant adults, where you give a few vaccines, tap some info into the computer, no-one will ever be angry again, you will not have to manage your time, your feet wil never hurt, you always go home on time and you will be eternally young and life will be just dandy!

I think some new people need to grow up a bit, and look at the quite often harsh reality of life. Bedside nursing is not all stress, it can be pleasant depending upon where you work and what area of nursing you get into. But as the soldiers say, you got to go into the trenches first to get higher up later on.

Where's that tough apple-pie American spirit we're always hearing about on the news gone to?

I have researched plastic surgical nursing, and what it takes to become board certified as such. I do agree with you that "at least 12 months" is absolutely necessary. After graduating, I hope to work at least two years as a perioperative nurse in a hospital setting. Currently, my goal is to achieve that first, then work in a private practice after. However, I am in my first year of school. Who knows, what changes the next three years will bring to my current plan for the future. :)

I work in an ICU where RNs are the only ones back there.... no techs, no secretary... we answer phones, feed pts, bath them, clean their non stopping stools when tube feeds are started, wash their wounds, suction their lungs, catch vomit... and manage to still eat our lunch at the nurses station and not even think twice about it!

Im only 27 but still am kinda old school... I did my year of med/surg... paid my dues and went to ICU... although its not anymore glamorous it was kind of a ladder climb for me. But my year on med/surg was essential for me... I became the nurse I am that first year, how I did my assessments, how I planned my day, etc...

I still think it important for a Registered Nurse to be able to do the functions of an RN... superb assessment skills, med knowledge, etc...and only time and experience gets you there. If plastic surgery is what she wants, fine, but I would not expect her to be very marketable to a hospital if she decides she doesn't like it. She may be treated like a new grad. Or who knows, maybe she will be a plastic surgeon herself

So I'm just now going to school to be a nurse. My long term plan is CRNA (it'll unfortunately be after they force the doctorate I think haha). I think the pace and the crazyness of the ICU is a perfect match for me (based on research, not experience), and think being a CRNA is a perfect match as well for similar reasons.

What I don't understand is... is this considered bedside nursing? What constitutes bedside nursing?

I envision in my mind, a long term care facility where the patients need constant everyday care... which sounds horrible to me. I couldn't survive in that environment, I'm male and not in the least maternal. I care about people, I care about patients, I want the best for the world and the people I deal with but... if bedside nursing is like working at a nursing home, I'm not cut out for it. Sure I could do it for a year or two to start out, but I wont start out looking for that kind of work.

So if that's what bedside nursing is... I think this original post is a little unfair.

Specializes in CT stepdown, hospice, psych, ortho.

Oh and this lovely new nurse wants to work ICU now......she thinks it will be like TV (she actually said this) where the doctors will do all the dressing changes and replaces all the tubes, lines, etc.....She'll just have to sit and look pretty while she charts and passes meds. :banghead:

Yeh, give that about 2 weeks and see if her delusions of grandeur have cleared up.

Specializes in CT stepdown, hospice, psych, ortho.
So I'm just now going to school to be a nurse. My long term plan is CRNA (it'll unfortunately be after they force the doctorate I think haha). I think the pace and the crazyness of the ICU is a perfect match for me (based on research, not experience), and think being a CRNA is a perfect match as well for similar reasons.

What I don't understand is... is this considered bedside nursing? What constitutes bedside nursing?

I envision in my mind, a long term care facility where the patients need constant everyday care... which sounds horrible to me. I couldn't survive in that environment, I'm male and not in the least maternal. I care about people, I care about patients, I want the best for the world and the people I deal with but... if bedside nursing is like working at a nursing home, I'm not cut out for it. Sure I could do it for a year or two to start out, but I wont start out looking for that kind of work.

So if that's what bedside nursing is... I think this original post is a little unfair.

Bedside nursing is not just long term care. Its patient care. No matter what job you take if its hospital based involves some degree of cleaning messes, assisting with the potty, doing dressings that may not be palatable...and ICU nursing often involves no UAP so that bedpan and bed bath duty...its all yours.

Bedside nursing is not just long term care. Its patient care. No matter what job you take if its hospital based involves some degree of cleaning messes, assisting with the potty, doing dressings that may not be palatable...and ICU nursing often involves no UAP so that bedpan and bed bath duty...its all yours.

Yea, I know "code browns" will totally be up my alley :p, and I'm also confident I can suck it up. I just am not sure I can day in and day out soothe somebody who is dieing... if it's a situation of like, getting a patient up and moving, I'm more the type of person who is good at cheering them on, and supporting them. But touchy feely, emotional stuff... I.E. maternal type stuff... if that were the main part of my job, I'm not sure I could thrive doing that.

I just am not sure I can day in and day out soothe somebody who is dieing... if it's a situation of like, getting a patient up and moving, I'm more the type of person who is good at cheering them on, and supporting them. But touchy feely, emotional stuff... I.E. maternal type stuff... if that were the main part of my job, I'm not sure I could thrive doing that.

Bustthewave, have you considered shadowing an ICU nurse for a day? Supporting patients and their families through death and dying is an everyday thing for ICU nurses. There's lots of emotions - fear, sadness, shock, grief, helplessness. Some patients get better, many do not. Code blues and withdrawal of life support happens often. I work at a large teaching hospital. We get the sickest of the sick. In the ICU, the focus is getting patients stabilized on ventilators, various IV medications, dialysis, and other resuscitation efforts. Once they start to get better, we wean them off all the machines and medications. At my hospital, they get transferred out of the ICU pretty quickly once they no longer require these things. Getting patients up and moving typically happens on the regular floors once the patient is stable enough to leave the ICU.

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