IS the hard truth for most nurses definitely new grads is that poop cleaning and urine collection RN jobs are all that is open?
Pretty much bedside care, running around like a chicken with your head cutoff.
I don't think ICU solves the issue either.
Definitely thinking about different degree, since experience is the only way to open up other nursing positions, but I am not about to work bedside for 10 years. I would rather go back to school.
I have a couple of months of bedside experience so is there anything else I can do besides bedside care? If not I have no choice to move on.
There is no way I can pursue marriage a family by bringing home income this way. Just not going to happen.
I'm with you on your comments that people never really do know what it's like to do a job until they actually DO the job. Agreement. But then you went in a direction that I think tells me why you don't understand the overwhelming reaction to the OP's statement.
i do understand why some people are reacting as they did. and you're exactly right about the reasons why. A lot of people feel their job is more than a job, and even more than a profession - it's part of their very identity as a person. I can totally understand how it can feel hurtful to have your job description reduced to "poo shoveler" by someone else when to you, it's much more than that and it's part of who you are.
It's an understandable reaction, but a more evolved reaction would be to recognize the OP's rant for what it is instead of making it all about you. If someone else dislikes doing your job, that's not a personal attack on you. Different people, different experiences of the same job.
Realizing that you've made a huge mistake in your career choice and not knowing how to deal with these feelings and what to do next is scary. let's ask the OP for more information and help him/her brainstorm possible solutions for going forward into a new specialty or profession- instead of blaming, judging, and making it all about the past (i.e. "you should have done your research" - whether s/he did or didn't, it's in the past and thus entirely unhelpful to dwell on something you can't go back in time and change.)
The people who claim they didn't know nursing required them to do cna work or deal with poop are either delusional/in denial or didn't have the foresight to research the profession. How does one go through nursing school and not know.
idk about anyone else, but direct statements from professors at my nursing school program: "you're a highly educated professional; as a RN you are above doing CNA tasks." "You didn't get a master's degree to wipe feces." "Delegate, delegate, delegate."
I worked as a CNA, and while I was not naive enough to really believe that i would never have to touch a bedpan after i graduated, I did believe as a nurse my job would involve *less* of this sort of thing, and would consist more of tasks which require the skills and training i went to school to learn.
idk about anyone else, but direct statements from professors at my nursing school program: "you're a highly educated professional; as a RN you are above doing CNA tasks." "You didn't get a master's degree to wipe feces." "Delegate, delegate, delegate."
I would guess that if your professors are not unique in their approach to what floor nursing is, if there is a contingent of professors who say this as well, that would help explain the anger and frustration new grads feel when they are working their first job and told "umm....it IS part of your job to do this"!
When I was in school, my instructors were quite clear that NO nurse, no RN (ADN/BSN or otherwise-prepared) should expect to wave their hand in the direction of a CNA and "delegate" as a matter of course. Yes, we should delegate. But much of the time new grads discover that they cannot delegate to someone who isn't THERE (fewer CNAs on some units on some shifts and in some facilities means greater ADL responsibilities for the RNs). When a CNA is present, they may be already "spoken for", having received such delegations that will keep them busy for the next hour. Certainly we know our patients can't lie in feces for said hour, so.....we (RNs) will need to clean them up. Just a matter of logistics.
Every now and then a student will come onto the boards wondering how to "write up" a bad CNA, how to get the CNAs to do all the ADLs and hygiene tasks that were delegated to them, that they are learning how to be RNs, not CNAs. Well, I tell ya, that always goes over like a lead balloon, as the students who come out of nursing school thinking they are now above CNA work don't yet recognize they will be DOING CNA work whenever there isn't a CNA right there and available.
Consider, too, the primary model of nursing some (many?) facilities are returning to: one RN, one LPN, one CNA for a half a ton of patients. This means everyone has something delegated, but it also means that if the patient is more than what one CNA can handle (such as large pts who require two sets of hands) then that RN is going to have to get right into the mix.
Bottom line (no pun intended!) is that it's unrealistic to have new grads believing they are now "above" hygiene tasks. And, unfortunately, too many of them do
Specializes in Case mgmt., rehab, (CRRN), LTC & psych.
idk about anyone else, but direct statements from professors at my nursing school program: "you're a highly educated professional; as a RN you are above doing CNA tasks." "You didn't get a master's degree to wipe feces." "Delegate, delegate, delegate."
I suppose I was fortunate to have started off as an LVN because the instructors in that program weren't referring to us students as educated professionals. It was crystal clear to the majority of students that the role of the bedside nurse entailed a great degree of physical labor and unpleasantness.
After nearly a decade of bedside nursing I am planning my exit. I am so ready to sit at a cubicle or inside a clean office in front of paperwork. I am so ready to be far away from belligerent patients and verbally abusive families.
Specializes in Med nurse in med-surg., float, HH, and PDN.
Welp, the transition to an all RN hospital staff was predicted over 45 years ago, and the elimination of LPN's from the hospital, which was also predicted that long ago, is already finally occurring in many hospitals. Plus there are fewer CNA's hired on, as well.
Don't hardly see how an RN can get out of doing personal care unless somebody invents and employs the use of robot butt-wipers.
If there's nobody to delegate tasks to.....who gets to do them?
idk about anyone else, but direct statements from professors at my nursing school program: "you're a highly educated professional; as a RN you are above doing CNA tasks." "You didn't get a master's degree to wipe feces." "Delegate, delegate, delegate."
Obviously RNs have to delegate to CNAs, but there's only so much that can be delegated. A CNA can only be in one room at a time. CNA tasks are most definitely part of professional nursing in any bedside RN position.
If you want a RN job that doesn't involve direct care, then you need to get a job away from the bedside. Accepting a bedside position, and then saying "I'm too much of an educated professional to wipe feces" is not an option. Your instructors did you a great disservice by painting a false picture of the reality of nursing.
Welp, the transition to an all RN hospital staff was predicted over 45 years ago, and the elimination of LPN's from the hospital, which was also predicted that long ago, is already finally occurring in many hospitals. Plus there are fewer CNA's hired on, as well.
"already finally occurring" seems like a paradoxical phrase....
Specializes in Cath/EP lab, CCU, Cardiac stepdown.
idk about anyone else, but direct statements from professors at my nursing school program: "you're a highly educated professional; as a RN you are above doing CNA tasks." "You didn't get a master's degree to wipe feces." "Delegate, delegate, delegate."
I worked as a CNA, and while I was not naive enough to really believe that i would never have to touch a bedpan after i graduated, I did believe as a nurse my job would involve *less* of this sort of thing, and would consist more of tasks which require the skills and training i went to school to learn.
Then your professors did huge disservice to the students and the profession. No nurse is ever above that kind of care. We can delegate when we're busy but if we got a free moment and the patient needs help, we really should help them. I only say should because there's always the bunch that don't.
As skilled professionals, are we going to let the patient sit in their feces for a while because we delegated to the cnas who are clearly busy with other code browns? No we exercise our professionalism to help the patient feel better and provide them with dignity.
I would guess that if your professors are not unique in their approach to what floor nursing is, if there is a contingent of professors who say this as well, that would help explain the anger and frustration new grads feel when they are working their first job and told "umm....it IS part of your job to do this"!
exactly. i hated working as a CNA. my co-workers at the hospital and my professors encouraged me to keep going when i admitted i had doubts about whether nursing was for me. several times throughout nursing school i was like "i think i'm making a mistake; maybe i shouldn't be a nurse if i'm so repulsed by bathing and toileting other people".
Transferring /attempting to lift obese patients was another thing that had me ready to quit; as was the constant barrage of stupid trivial requests. Whenever I was honest about my concerns and honest about the fact that i don't think i could stand to do this kind of thing for the rest of my career (or even for another several months!) I was assured when I graduated my job would be totally different and i wouldn't be fetching apple juice and wiping butts on a regular basis.
I even requested a meeting with the head of the nursing dept at my school, asking for advice my first semester. I told him I didn't think nursing was for me after all, and I told him why. He laughed and said working as a nurse and working as a tech were as different as night and day, and that if i was doing unskilled tasks it would be wrong because i would be teaching the aides/techs it was okay to be lazy and they would get used to me doing their job for them.
exactly. i hated working as a CNA. my co-workers at the hospital and my professors encouraged me to keep going when i admitted i had doubts about whether nursing was for me. several times throughout nursing school i was like "i think i'm making a mistake; maybe i shouldn't be a nurse if i'm so repulsed by bathing and toileting other people".
Transferring /attempting to lift obese patients was another thing that had me ready to quit; as was the constant barrage of stupid trivial requests. Whenever I was honest about my concerns and honest about the fact that i don't think i could stand to do this kind of thing for the rest of my career (or even for another several months!) I was assured when I graduated my job would be totally different and i wouldn't be fetching apple juice and wiping butts on a regular basis.
I even requested a meeting with the head of the nursing dept at my school, asking for advice my first semester. I told him I didn't think nursing was for me after all, and I told him why. He laughed and said working as a nurse and working as a tech were as different as night and day, and that if i was doing unskilled tasks it would be wrong because i would be teaching the aides/techs it was okay to be lazy and they would get used to me doing their job for them.
Specializes in Med nurse in med-surg., float, HH, and PDN.
"already finally occurring" seems like a paradoxical phrase....
I was diagnosed with paradoxicalitis years ago (moon in Gemini, doncha know) but I take medication for it. It's just that when I get all het up, a wee bit of the 'doxical' reveals itself.
:dead:And I never claimed to be an English major or grammarian.
I even requested a meeting with the head of the nursing dept at my school, asking for advice my first semester. I told him I didn't think nursing was for me after all, and I told him why. He laughed and said working as a nurse and working as a tech were as different as night and day, and that if i was doing unskilled tasks it would be wrong because i would be teaching the aides/techs it was okay to be lazy and they would get used to me doing their job for them.
Yikes! He was right about the night/day thing only in that you will have to encompass the entire job of the CNA into your job as an RN. The RN responsibilities will all be there....and on top of it, you would need to expect to do the job of the CNA as well (if need be, and most of the time the need is there).
Must've been a shocker for you.....as it is obviously for those poor students who really believe this as well. I do remember the student thread awhile back in which the student was quite indignant that she was "learning to be an RN, not a CNA" when it was suggested she needed to do the job herself if it needed to get done, not look around for a CNA or write up a CNA who wasn't willing to do it because he/she was already overbooked. Seems the idea of a glossy, shiny RN floating above the menial tasks of bodily cleanup was out there for her, as well
RobotNurse
89 Posts
i do understand why some people are reacting as they did. and you're exactly right about the reasons why. A lot of people feel their job is more than a job, and even more than a profession - it's part of their very identity as a person. I can totally understand how it can feel hurtful to have your job description reduced to "poo shoveler" by someone else when to you, it's much more than that and it's part of who you are.
It's an understandable reaction, but a more evolved reaction would be to recognize the OP's rant for what it is instead of making it all about you. If someone else dislikes doing your job, that's not a personal attack on you. Different people, different experiences of the same job.
Realizing that you've made a huge mistake in your career choice and not knowing how to deal with these feelings and what to do next is scary. let's ask the OP for more information and help him/her brainstorm possible solutions for going forward into a new specialty or profession- instead of blaming, judging, and making it all about the past (i.e. "you should have done your research" - whether s/he did or didn't, it's in the past and thus entirely unhelpful to dwell on something you can't go back in time and change.)