Should I become a nurse if I don't like bedside care?

[Sweetjen09]

Should I become a nurse if I don't like giving bed baths or dealing with any personal care? I've been debating if to go into getting a degree in Healthcare administration or my lpn/RN. I've worked my whole life as a caregiver. I have my Chha and CNA. I never worked as a CNA because I did not like how the nursing homes were. I'm also a petite girl. I don't like physical jobs. I'm currently in a medical assistant program. I was thinking of becoming a nurse later but to only work at a doctors office or homecare. Do I need years of working in a nursing facility to be able to work at a doctors office? I'm 30 yrs old with a special 10yrs old son. If I even wanted to do nursing I would have to start with basic courses like basic math, since I barely passed High school when I was young. I also don't like dealing with bowels, too much blood, vomit and putting tubes in patients like gtubes etc. My bf said it's not for me. He said his sister is a nurse with her bachelor's degree and she still has to deal with clinical stuff at the hospital. I just want to get other people's opinions. 

 

[Golden_RN, MSN]

You will probably have to be a top student in your pre-req classes to get into nursing school.  If you get accepted, you WILL have to deal with tubes, toileting, etc etc in school.  Generally you will need experience at the bedside to get a non-bedside job.  If you're interested in health care but not bedside nursing, I would recommend studying something like public health.  Definitely do not consider LPN school because the vast majority of LPN jobs are direct patient care.  Jobs in doctor's offices are not abundant for licensed nurses - those are mostly for medical assistants.

[Triplepoint, ADN, RN]

It's good to be asking these questions before deciding to pursue nursing school. Even if you get a job in a doctor's office as a nurse, you will still have to go through a nursing program and do clinical where you will not be able to avoid unpleasant bodily functions and people who are very sick. A job in healthcare administration may be a better fit for you if you wish to advance your education. 

[Neo Soldier, BSN, RN]

When you become a nurse, you don't have to do bedside care. While in the nursing program, you will have to do bedside as part of clinical but it's only a few hours a week.

If you want to get into the nursing program, you will need to complete some courses in Math, psychology, sociology, possibly nutrition, a US history and/or politics course, communications, and English. 

[Tacocat, ASN, RN]

1 hour ago, Neo Soldier said:

When you become a nurse, you don't have to do bedside care.

What wonderland do you live in? CNAs perform some bedside care but sometimes you need to toilet and bathe your own patient, and sometimes CNAs need help. You can't refuse to perform that care because poop is icky.

[lpag789, BSN, RN]

3 minutes ago, Tacocat said:

What wonderland do you live in? CNAs perform some bedside care but sometimes you need to toilet and bathe your own patient, and sometimes CNAs need help. You can't refuse to perform that care because poop is icky.

I assume they meant that not all nursing roles are bedside ones. 

[Tacocat, ASN, RN]

13 minutes ago, klightwood said:

I assume they meant that not all nursing roles are bedside ones. 

Not all nursing roles are bedside roles, but those non-bedside roles are harder to obtain without a bedside background. 

[Neo Soldier, BSN, RN]

23 minutes ago, Tacocat said:

What wonderland do you live in? CNAs perform some bedside care but sometimes you need to toilet and bathe your own patient, and sometimes CNAs need help. You can't refuse to perform that care because poop is icky.

Not every single nursing role is bedside. In psych nursing, there's barely any need to do things like that. Not that they won't come up once in a while, it's just not as common. 

[mrsmith, BSN, EMT-B]

current nursing student here. I plan  on going into informatics or administration which is NOT bedside. I also plan on seeking an advanced degree in order to go in this direction though. 

[MDBoy]

I don't know...I don't think you really need to be a "top" student necessarily. Put forth some decent effort and you should be able to do well enough to get mainly As and a couple Bs in the prereqs. If you have a avg to slightly above avg IQ you have the raw materials to succeed enough to gain entrance to a program.The main important courses to do best in are AP 1 and 2. Put on a strong showing in those and you can get in quite easily in most cases.

[VivaLasViejas, ASN, RN]

If the idea of bedside nursing is repulsive to you, you might want to consider a different career in health care. “Wiping butts” is part and parcel of the job, you can’t always rely on CNAs or techs to do the dirty work. I can understand if you don’t want to deal with the icky aspects of the job, but bedside is way more than that—there’s critical thinking and “people smarts” which are necessary to be a good nurse. Not to say you couldn’t develop those abilities, of course, but you would be better off in an ancillary role such as a unit secretary (although they sometimes have to work the floor as a nurse’s aide) or medical assistant.

I wish you the very best in whatever you decide to do. Viva.

[BSN-to-MSN, ADN, BSN, RN]

Stick to the medical assistant then.