The dirty work?

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So, I am a recent college grad, but thinking about going back to school for nursing. I want a career that is fulfilling and rewarding and I want to help people. However, I am wondering how much dirty work a RN does on a day to day basis; as in bathing, cleaning vomit and poop and urine and changing bed pans and sheets and that type of stuff.

Thanks for you answers

You all seem to take pride on cleaning poop. I mean, did you all/we really go to college to learn to clean up vomit and poop? You all make it sound as if RNs spend the majority of their shifts wiping butts. Is this how it really is? because in that case I will choose a different field.

You need to choose a different field. Your attitude shows.

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You all seem to take pride on cleaning poop. I mean, did you all/we really go to college to learn to clean up vomit and poop? You all make it sound as if RNs spend the majority of their shifts wiping butts. Is this how it really is? because in that case I will choose a different field.

Yes. Please find another field.

I take pride in taking care of my patients in their entirety, and I take pride in being able to convince an a&o man to let me help clean him up, to clean up that man my dad's age without making him feel humiliated or even self-conscious about it, to soothe that LOL who is looking for her baby - while it isn't all about the poop it's certainly an aspect of care.

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Specializes in CCU, SICU, CVSICU, Precepting & Teaching.
you all seem to take pride on cleaning poop. i mean, did you all/we really go to college to learn to clean up vomit and poop? you all make it sound as if rns spend the majority of their shifts wiping butts. is this how it really is? because in that case i will choose a different field.

please do choose a different field.

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I feel like you missed my point totally. 513MissLady was correct. In school you will have total care of your patients and if you choose to work on a hospital floor as an RN, you will also experience instances of bodily fluids. But you don't have to become a hospital RN. There are many other paths. But plan on spending some time providing total care while in school. This is part of the education and a stepping stone to other nursing jobs. Are you willing to do the butt wiping required to get through school? If it's not for you, that's ok. As for pride in wiping butts....Let's put it this way, I take pride in caring for human beings. And yes, I'm going to college for it, too. I'm wondering from your response if perhaps another career path might be more to your liking. As you already have a bachelors degree, apparently you feel that you haven't yet found your niche. It is ridiculously difficult to get into nursing school, so if you're really uncertain, please don't take up a space from someone who really wants to be a nurse. Take some time for reflection. How do you want to help people? What really matters most to you as you try to help others? But please, above all, don't disdain those of us who are going to school and wiping butts, or the RN's who continue to provide total care. None of us deserve that disrespect.

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well, so far in clinicals every day I've been there I've had to deal with poop, urine, vomit, blood, or some sort of bodily fluid. Truly if those things make you queazy and you don't think you can get past it, then I'd say nursing isn't for you. I was honestly surprised at how often I encounter it, but now I'm to the point where I just don't notice it much. But I've had stomach juice all over me (thanks to a classmate who didn't know how to get a residual right), vomit, and poop actually on me or my scrubs and we're only 1/2 through.

To the person who said as a nurse you'll have a tech to deal with it, yeah, right! If you are a crappy nurse and call a tech for all your "dirty work" you'll not only alienate a great ally (the CNA's) but you'll likely make your pt. feel terrible. Not only that, aide's can't do wound care or insert foley's or change colostomy bags, so really there is just no way to aviod it.

I plan to be a NICU nurse and baby "dirty work" doesn't bother me in the least, but I have to learn to care for adult pts before I can work with babies, so it's just unavoidable.

Also, I just wanted to add that nurses get very familiar with poop. You'll know all about the color, shape, texture and smell. I actually find myself peaking at my ds poop when I flush for him (he's 4 but afraid of the noise) just to make sure everythings ok. I joke that you can tell a nurse/nursing student by how quickly and easily she talks about poop!

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That seems a wee bit exaggerated to me. I know we nurses are very busy but come on...you're saying you did that all in 4 hours?

I think you need to learn to add up as 7am to 1 pm is not 4 hours it is 6 hours and yes that is what i did last shift. A full bed bath with linen change takes me rougly 15 minutes with the help of a HCA to make the bed. So in your opinions what should i be doing whilst the bed baths are being done? Students are not allowed to do the morning meds (due to time constraints/large number of meds) instead we do the 2pm and 6pm meds. At the year one mark student nurses are treated as HCA's/another pair of hands and i am not to posh to wash. I actually enjoy washing my patients.

Its quite simple as whilst one patients feet are soaking in the bowl ive stripped and made another bed/got a bed pan/commode

Whilst the patient is washing their face i empty their cath bag-its quite simple, its called multitasking.

I work with the elderly so there is alot of bodily fluids to be dealt with, i just get on with it

Are you telling me that you couldnt manage to do this amount of work?

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You all seem to take pride on cleaning poop. I mean, did you all/we really go to college to learn to clean up vomit and poop? You all make it sound as if RNs spend the majority of their shifts wiping butts. Is this how it really is? because in that case I will choose a different field.

I am finding that there is no glamour in nursing. I think its a noble profession because these are the hard, menial tasks that have great importance but little status. I have so much respect for CNA's who spend their days wiping up after a person the world seems to have forgotton. They must go home with aching backs and feet from caring for total strangers all day, and they get up and do it all over again. The same with nurses. It seems to be a pretty thankless job, but I'm finding that people who make good nurses are there because they care about people and making a difference, even if most days it goes completely unacknowledged.

As other posters have said: Nursing is very, very tough to get into, and you really should shadow some nurses before you take the seat of a person who has the heart for it.

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Specializes in Gyn/STD clinic tech.
you all seem to take pride on cleaning poop. i mean, did you all/we really go to college to learn to clean up vomit and poop? you all make it sound as if rns spend the majority of their shifts wiping butts. is this how it really is? because in that case i will choose a different field.

okay.. yes i take pride in wiping butts, cleaning poop, and all of that other messy stuff. nursing is a position of caring. caring involves poop, vomit, pee, and other such bodily fluids.

you should consider another field.

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I think you need to learn to add up as 7am to 1 pm is not 4 hours it is 6 hours and yes that is what i did last shift. A full bed bath with linen change takes me rougly 15 minutes with the help of a HCA to make the bed. So in your opinions what should i be doing whilst the bed baths are being done? Students are not allowed to do the morning meds (due to time constraints/large number of meds) instead we do the 2pm and 6pm meds. At the year one mark student nurses are treated as HCA's/another pair of hands and i am not to posh to wash. I actually enjoy washing my patients.

Its quite simple as whilst one patients feet are soaking in the bowl ive stripped and made another bed/got a bed pan/commode

Whilst the patient is washing their face i empty their cath bag-its quite simple, its called multitasking.

I work with the elderly so there is alot of bodily fluids to be dealt with, i just get on with it

Are you telling me that you couldnt manage to do this amount of work?

I was tired, so there is no need to be snippy mmk. And second what I can and can not do is not open to discussion, this isn't going to turn into an argument. Irregardless of whether or not you can accomplish all of that in that amount of time, I still find it odd that that is all you are doing at the one year mark. You only have so much clinical time and I would think things such as head to toe assessments would be more pertinent at this point.

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Sorry for being snippy.

We get 24 weeks of clinical a year (roughly) and its required that everyone helps out with the washes whilst the more senior nurse on shift does the morning meds. If i have finished doing the washes/turns/toileting then i can do the assessments/paperwork and the ob's.

I work 12 hour shifts so i get to do plenty in the afternoons :D I do at least one med pass a day,normally at least one dressing in the afternoon and the risk assessments.

Im from the uk and my uni focus on gaining those 'basic' skills such as washing,moving and handling and multitasking. When we get to year two we get to do so much more and year three we are treated more like nurses and get to do doctors rounds and such and less like skivvies.

What would you include in the head to toe assessments?

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Sorry for being snippy.

We get 24 weeks of clinical a year (roughly) and its required that everyone helps out with the washes whilst the more senior nurse on shift does the morning meds. If i have finished doing the washes/turns/toileting then i can do the assessments/paperwork and the ob's.

I work 12 hour shifts so i get to do plenty in the afternoons :D I do at least one med pass a day,normally at least one dressing in the afternoon and the risk assessments.

Im from the uk and my uni focus on gaining those 'basic' skills such as washing,moving and handling and multitasking. When we get to year two we get to do so much more and year three we are treated more like nurses and get to do doctors rounds and such and less like skivvies.

What would you include in the head to toe assessments?

I would have loved your school!

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maybe nursing isn't for me then. I wanted to work in the ER or in the OR but I don't think I can deal with poop. I dont mind other bodily fluids, but I dont think I can wipe a persons butt. I really want to be a RN too. It doesn't mean I don't want to be a part of the total care of the patient or that I don't want to care for people bad enough. I just honestly don't believe that professionals with a BS degree should have to wipe butts. I think other people who didn't attain that level of education should have to do it. And not because they are less human or however cruel you think I may sound..I just really think that if person A went to school for one year to be a CNA or two years for ADSN then they should be doing more of the grunt work. That is how it is in most other industries. The lower people on the totempole do the lower grade work. It has nothing to do with being better or above them, it's just a matter of heiarchy i believe. Just how I feel. I really want to be a part of the healing process too and help people and I love the Idea of being an RN, I just dont think i can wipe a persons butt.. Sucks for me. I was really looking forward to going back to school for my BSN but now I am totally discouraged

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