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.
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.
agreed on all counts! i am actively working on getting into clinic /outpatient work.
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.
Was this by any chance a for-profit school? Sounds like they were willing to say whatever they had to say to keep you in school. I've taught in a few different (nonprofit) ADN and BSN programs over the years and have never heard of a faculty member being so intentionally misleading when speaking to a student expressing doubts and misgivings about continuing in nursing.
Providing personal care is an excellent way to build rapport while assessing your patient. Look at it this way....if you leave someone soiled in poop that potentially becomes your problem later on when the patient develops a wound. You are not above personal care as a nurse.
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.
Oh please. I don't buy this for a second. You and the OP should buddy up. With the internet and so many available resources, you are a fool not to know what you are getting into when you become a NURSE.
I think some nurses should do their poor patients and the unfortunate out of work new grads a favor and quit. Why would you continue to do something you don't even like doing?
Providing personal care is an excellent way to build rapport while assessing your patient. Look at it this way....if you leave someone soiled in poop that potentially becomes your problem later on when the patient develops a wound. You are not above personal care as a nurse.
I always chase down my techs and ask them to let me join them for the bed baths. It's a great time for the assessment, and it's great for team building. Win/Win!
Oh please. I don't buy this for a second. You and the OP should buddy up. With the internet and so many available resources, you are a fool not to know what you are getting into when you become a NURSE.
I think some nurses should do their poor patients and the unfortunate out of work new grads a favor and quit. Why would you continue to do something you don't even like doing?
i'm a fool? coming from someone who claims to be utterly bewildered as to why someone would not quit their job on the spot if they didn't like it? it's not like people require money to live, right? I already SAID i am working on getting out of inpatient/hospital-based work. If you can transition from one practice area to another literally overnight, then great. wow. for the rest of us mere mortals, we might need to keep our day jobs for now while we work toward something better for us.
what else is foolish? conflating not loving one's job with not doing a good job.
Oh please. I don't buy this for a second. You and the OP should buddy up. With the internet and so many available resources, you are a fool not to know what you are getting into when you become a NURSE.
I think some nurses should do their poor patients and the unfortunate out of work new grads a favor and quit. Why would you continue to do something you don't even like doing?
I worked as a CNA after my junior year of nursing school for one year until I graduated, so I had CNA experience, but I didn't expect to be using it so much and I was actually surprised at how much personal care I did as a RN. You would have thought I would have gotten a taste of it during my preceptorship at least, but that was in an exceptionally well-staffed ICU with multiple CNAs per shift. It was considered to be a nice thing to do for nurses to help with baths and cleaning up poop, but totally unnecessary as there were plenty of CNAs around to do that sort of work. I worked 36 hours per week for six weeks with a preceptor and I could count the number of times on one hand that I actually cleaned fecal matter other than when we found some when I helped the CNAs with bathing. And that was HELPING, which is a world of difference from it being my primary job responsibility. Helping someone else do something feels a whole lot different than having to do it alone yourself.
Getting my first job in ICU where there were no CNAs at all was unpleasant, to say the least.
My school also hit us hard about delegating, that we COULD do CNA tasks but that it would be a waste of our time when we had so many other responsibilities that needed to be taken care of. We had an entire class on management/leadership/delegation. Making sure the CNAs did CNA things so the RNs were free to do higher-level work was a big part of that class.
It's a little funny to me that you're advocating taking the Internet more seriously than people's educational institutions. I know if my instructor who had been a nurse for 30+ years told me something, I would personally be more inclined to believe my instructor, whose credentials I know, than some random stranger on the Internet who may or may not actually be a nurse. Calling someone a fool for believing their experienced instructors know more than random Internet strangers is a little ridiculous.
toomuchbaloney
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naive students...