someone tell me it gets better after RN school???

Nurses General Nursing

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Im half way through my 1st semester of 4 and Im hating nursing school! Is this normal??? For one, our clinicals are being done in LTC rehab and I HATE it. Bed sores and bed baths, incontinent patients, feces and urine everywhere, It was all I could do not to have an anxiety attack right there. Its not that I dont empathize with these patients, I do, but If this is what my job is going to be about when I graduate then I dont think I want to graduate. Im hoping that someone will tell me that LTC is where you see the worst part of the job and that there are other areas I can go into that dont deal with these issues. Im sorry but cleaning up someone else's feces and urine and bathing their genitals and whatnot is disgusting and Im not ashamed to admit that. Alot of the students try to pretend like they have no issue with it whatsoever but I think thats a load of baloney and they just dont want to admit that bc its 'taboo' for a nurse of all people to think such a thing much less say it out loud (as if we're saints). We are nurses and yes we care but come one, be real, some of the things nurses have to do is gross! SO, I would like to know, does this sound like a normal reaction to the beginning of nursing school or am I looking at a job that Im going to hate??

Specializes in oncology/BMT, general medicine.

I have a BSN and still wipe butts! This is something you need to cope with if you are interested in a career in nursing. This is simply what we do. Do I personally like working with urine and stool? Not really, but I do it because my patients needs me to.

Also, I have read some of your other posts...

In nursing we must pay our dues. I hate to say that but it is true. You must get some hospital or LTC experience before you can move into other positions. If not, you will struggle and your patients will suffer the consequences. Long shifts are not required as you can work 8 hours, but you will find that working 3 12's is a nice bonus.

Specializes in Rehab, LTC.

Everyone poops, everyone pees, and everyone has genitalia and it is all part of nursing. I currently work with a nurse who is very intelligent however refuses to get her hands dirty in any kind of way. She won't even start an IV or do lab draws! Once we had a patient who was vomiting and she made the charge switch her assignment bc she was going to be sick if she went in the patients room. I hate to be the one to say it but I think we could do without nurses like this. Do yourself a favor and go into hospital administration or something.

Specializes in Emergency & Trauma/Adult ICU.
my thinking going into nursing was to be a plastic surgery or derma nurse. Ive also toyed with the idea of maternity. Do these sound like they would be a better fit?

I thought nursing was giving out meds, talking vitals, talking to patients, holding their hand, educating them, etc...I didnt think bed baths/feces/urine were a major part of the job but where I am in LTC it is constant.

I guess those labiaplasty procedures are out ...

OP, in my experience, many nursing students are uncomfortable in their early clinical rotations in LTC. The vast majority of them do gain some comfort level with dealing with the human body - all of it - with a little time and experience.

A minority find that nursing is just not for them, and better to realize that sooner rather than later.

Good luck to you.

Specializes in Cadiothoracic, psychiatric.

consider psych nursing

Well it does get and it doesn't depend basically how you look at the situations,on one hand you start getting "real" experience and you can put theory into practice finally but then again you still need stay current on a different health topics to expand your knowledge,you have more autonomy (the mean instructor is not breathing down your neck) but then again you also are held responsible for your actions (chart,chart chart every little thing you do!!) It feels really cool reading a case study and actually relate to it through your previous patient interactions,the words,vital signs,diagnoses are no longer a theory to you,you actually see it through the nurse's eyes,let me tell it is such a cool feeling!! Then you take care the richest of the richest and the poorest of the poorest (one of my nursing instructor's phrase) Now I understand what she means,I have taken care (I work home health care-I started backwards kinda akward for a new grad) and I have taken care of poor people and did stuff that would be considered "nasty" by some nurses like putting lotions on a 80-years old men scaly,flaky,dead skin legs/feet while he was spitting up to the garbage container and chewing on tobacco...can you imagine anything grosser?? But I also felt like a real nurse at times like those,giving the care to the poor,undeserved,forgotten in a way,you get a sort of fuzzy feeling when a family member tells you you are the best nurses her dad ever had.

Specializes in ER, peds, gi, case mgmt..

It's so early in your training and it sounds like no one told you what to expect.

I can honestly say it did not bother me. It's much easier to care for intact skin than skin broken down as a result of neglect. Don't think of these substances as gross but as some of the amazing physiologic functions of the body. You will notice that some of the smells and visual observations, while not pleasant, will be valuable clues as to what's going on with your patient. Give yourself time to adjust. Are those the only issues? How do you feel about blood, saliva, purulent drainage, diaphoresis, nasal discharge, gangrene, earwax, genital discharge? Some of these will be more prevalent in the acute care setting. I think every nurse has a body byproduct they hate. Mine is sputum....16 years and I still cringe when I see it! I have noticed that many of the students these days are not interested in doing direct patient care. Do the staff nurses have to pratically push you in the pt. rooms? If you are more interested in chatting, hanging out in the nurse's station and reading charts, you may have to rethink your plans.

Specializes in Acute Spine, Neuro, Thoracic's, LTC.

Don't worry, I hated it at first too. I remember my first clinical experience in school was also in LTC and I went home the first day crying. The next day I threw up. I couldn't eat for a week because I had no appetite after seeing some of the things I saw. People in my class told me I shouldn't be a nurse if I couldn't deal with it.

4 years post graduation and I now absolutely love nursing and can't think of anything else I would rather do. Not to mention I think I am a pretty damn good nurse at that! It may not seem like it now but you will get over it, at least to some extent. I promise you that because I don't know of anyone who was as disgusted as I was to change a pad or a bedpan. I don't even flinch over these things anymore.

Also keep in mind I don't have to do this stuff half as much anymore since I graduated. When I did work in LTC the CNA's mostly dealt with it. I worked in surgery in the hospital and dealt with it some but to to the extent I did during my first clinical. And now I work as a cosmetic nurse and never deal with it.

Don't give up! Just bear with it for now and realize that when you graduate you can chose to work in an area where you don't have to deal with it much and even when you do it is only a small portion of your job.

Specializes in chemical dependency detox/psych.
consider psych nursing
Ha, no. Unless you also want to clean up the feces that's been smeared in their hair while they're delusional. Or have someone going through DTs wave their member at you like a sword, while trying to bat you away, all the time you're trying to administer an IM injection. Seriously--all true.

This is the exact reason that I fear I won't do well as a nurse. I have 3 kids, so have seen the poop, pee, barf...but don't like it...and how will I do when I do it for someone who is NOT my child or family member?

many dont find jobs right away in nursing. that means that at times, we take jobs that are not our "dream jobs" or ideal jobs.

take a pause here and ask yourself could you get used to doing this type of care for a couple of years if you had to

In maternity you will experience a nauseated/vomiting mother, lots of cleaning genitals/ sometimes feces during birth, and urine that may shoot up in the air during pushing. Everyone has trouble at first but you get use to it and appreciate a good bowel movement, good urine output, and feel better knowing your patient is clean and comfortable because you did it. I always thought about my mother or father in that position and try to be the nurse I would want them to have. :nurse:

Specializes in Med-Surg.

I remember back in my LTC rotation I was a very unhappy camper about the whole urine, feces, genitals etc. Actually.. that was back when a catheter was SO scary to me. Through nursing school you evolve I think. You see things so often it and do it so often that it is no longer a big deal. To me its just another member.. its just another bum.. its just another lady parts.. no big deal. You get over the shyness and the scariness of other people and their bodies.

I have noticed while being in surgical I have only had to "clean up" one patient who's bowels were not able to be controlled about half way through a procedure in the OR. Honestly.. as gross as it was.. (you dont think the OR staff cleaned it up do you?)

Urine, feces, genitals... it comes with the job.. eventually you start treating these things as just part of someones body.. like an arm or a leg... Believe it or not I am not a fan of doing oral care on my patients.. but i do it because it makes them feel good.

Many of us have unrealistic views of what nursing is when first starting school... and it is ok, it is a huge learning process...

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