A few questions... I have looked around the forums but I want to ask specifically about Ontario/Canada. I've heard people say that they got 'suckered' into nursing and the reality is you have to clean peoples messes (of different kinds) regularly. I've also heard people say they rarely have to do it as a RN (BSN).
For those who have an aversion to poop, and cleaning up after people, what roles or careers as an RN have minimal exposure to fecis and cleaning patients ? Operating room ? Cardiac ? Flight nursing ? How easy is it to specialise like this ?
In Ontario are RN's the grunts dealing with bedpans etc.. in hospitals? What are the realities of this?
For those interested in a career that has more to do with diagnoses, treatment, and science is RN a good way to go or not?
I'm sure when I start attending school I will have to deal with cleaning up more then once... which I dont mind, but I would like to move myself away from it once ive graduated if possible.
Every grunt job like cleaning up poop, bathing, ambulating are all excellent opportunities for the nurse to make assessments of skin, gait, stool type, mental orientation.
Never mind the fun part.....does the urine still smell to high heaven? Hard to get that assessment from someone else. I cannot assess my pts from someone else's eyes.
But you are right. The OP maybe should think of something in ultrasound, maybe dental hygenist, anything that will let them step away from bodily functions and dealing with the yuckies. Some of the grossest stories I've heard have been from the flight crews.
Have you considered a job in public health? Counselling? out pt. Psych, Diabetes RN?, health informatics? (there have been a few RN's I work with who left the unit for a time to work on developing and implementing computer programs such as electronic patient tracker in ER), infection control RN, risk management department, occupational health nurse, research nurse.... I'm srue there's many more roles out there that fit with what you are looking for. I know lots of people from school who found that hospital/facility care was not thier desired career path, and luckly in the nursing field the options are nearly endless...with a little imagination I'm sure you could come up with annother type of role yourself.
Also, there is nothing wrong with not being into some aspects of care... I could never stand the monotony of working in a doctor's office or occupation health, but it suits other people down to a T and thank goodness for that. It dosen't mean that either nurse is above the roles of the other.
Specializes in NICU, PICU, PCVICU and peds oncology.
Another option would be to become a registered respiratory therapist. They have a huge and highly specialized knowledge base, provide essential direct care, but don't deal with anything below the daiphragm, as our group like to say. And in most places their pay and benefits are close to those of the RNS they work with.
If you want to avoid poop, I would stay away from LTC, where you could be caring for people with MS and similar neurological disorders, spinal cord injuries or brain injuries that cause them to have great difficulty evacuating their own bowels. They will often need manual evacuation... it's exactly as it sounds. PSWs are not qualified to perform that type of care, so it's the nurse's job.
Have you considered a job in public health? Counselling? out pt. Psych, Diabetes RN?, health informatics? (there have been a few RN's I work with who left the unit for a time to work on developing and implementing computer programs such as electronic patient tracker in ER), infection control RN, risk management department, occupational health nurse, research nurse.... I'm srue there's many more roles out there that fit with what you are looking for. I know lots of people from school who found that hospital/facility care was not thier desired career path, and luckly in the nursing field the options are nearly endless...with a little imagination I'm sure you could come up with annother type of role yourself.
You are missing a major point. Most nurses in Canada are unionized. This means that seniority is often the deciding factor on who gets to work OP, day clinics, etc. Often nurses with injuries are shunted off to end their working lives there.
The Psych nurses I've met could tell you some real horror stories involving poo.
You have to put in many poop-years before you could hope to get a position that was poop free. The OP would still have to get through school as well. Lots of poop there.
You are missing a major point. Most nurses in Canada are unionized. This means that seniority is often the deciding factor on who gets to work OP, day clinics, etc. Often nurses with injuries are shunted off to end their working lives there.
The Psych nurses I've met could tell you some real horror stories involving poo.
Resp Therapist, noooo, there is mucous there!!!
I don't believe I am missing the point at all. I believe this discussion on poop is missing the point. I know LOTS of people i went to school with who have not set foot on a hosopital/facility floor since graduation who work in pretty much most of those fields/departments I mentioned, that's how I was aware of them. There is nothing wrong with wanting a job that dosen't involve exposure to bodily fluid, it dosen't make you not worthy of being a nurse. It's mostly hosptial jobs that are unionized, as most of the people I know who work outside the hospital are not unionized therefore seniority is not an issue.
I think this discussion on poop is more focoused on making the OP feel like nursing isn't for him/her if they don't want to 'get thier hands dirty' and I whole harteldy disagree. I think the profession needs all kinds of people and anyone who has an interest in helping someone in any health care capacity, weather poop related or not, is fine by me.
In order to get thru nursing school, one is going to have to deal with every type of body fluid that there is. And to get the jobs where they are no fluids involved, usually requires a couple of years of experience at the bedside.
Flgiht nurses deal with every type of body fluid that there is, including poop and sputum as well as vomit and blood.
CRNA deal with sputum and vomit routinely, and sometimes poop as well.
It comes down to the fact that if you are caring for a patient, and they have had issues, then you deal with them. Not any different than anything else.
But to leave the patient for a nursing asst to come and clean them is just not the way to do things. And not all nursing units even have assistants.
This is not any different in any other country as well, not specific to working in Canada by any means at all. And unions do not even come into this, it is what is right. And leaving a patient soiled is not.
Same way that if you would come across an accident victim in the street, you are going to assist them, or at least that is what one should be thinking, and if they peed or pooped or had vomit, would they be left there?
Sometimes it needs to be discussed in terms like this, sorry for being so graphic but it is the only way to make a point.
linzz
931 Posts
Every grunt job like cleaning up poop, bathing, ambulating are all excellent opportunities for the nurse to make assessments of skin, gait, stool type, mental orientation.