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.
Specializes in Cath/EP lab, CCU, Cardiac stepdown.
You guys are being extremely harsh. This is supposed to be a support group and rather or not you all agree with what she is saying you are still professionals.
I think you're in the wrong place, all nurses is a public forum, not a support group. Of course you can find support here but to think that you can dictate the type of responses you want is ludicrous.
Please! We all (nurses) need to support each other and work on ways that we can improve working conditions so we don't experience so much stress and burnout! So many nurses are good-hearted people who go into the profession to really help and serve mankind. Unfortunately, the disrespect from management and the powerful money-players who run the health-care industry is what burns so many nurses out!
Specializes in CCU, SICU, CVSICU, Precepting & Teaching.
You guys are being extremely harsh. This is supposed to be a support group and rather or not you all agree with what she is saying you are still professionals.
This is a SUPPORT group? I must have missed that memo!
Specializes in Med nurse in med-surg., float, HH, and PDN.
This is a SUPPORT group? I must have missed that memo!
Ruby--
Page 6, Post # 71......My sentiments , exactly! I thought, "Did I miss something?" If it was truly the case that we are a support group,, I don't know what on earth I could say to a new nurse that didn't like the tasks involved in nursing. Maybe what I tell my patients who feel it necessary to apologize for me having to clean up their poop, "It's just part of the job. Besides, the only thing on earth that reallylikes poop is a fly."
(I'd rather clean up poop than do the dern repetitive/redundant charting on 14 different forms!)
Specializes in CCU, SICU, CVSICU, Precepting & Teaching.
Ruby--
Page 6, Post # 71......My sentiments , exactly! I thought, "Did I miss something?" If it was truly the case that we are a support group,, I don't know what on earth I could say to a new nurse that didn't like the tasks involved in nursing. Maybe what I tell my patients who feel it necessary to apologize for me having to clean up their poop, "It's just part of the job. Besides, the only thing on earth that reallylikes poop is a fly."
(I'd rather clean up poop than do the dern repetitive/redundant charting on 14 different forms!)
Gotta love the redundant charting on 14 different forms on a computer with an iffy mouse and a screen that is six inches too high. Come to think of it, I'd rather clean up poop, too.
Gotta love the redundant charting on 14 different forms on a computer with an iffy mouse and a screen that is six inches too high. Come to think of it, I'd rather clean up poop, too.
Let's not even get started on facilities that have not caught up to the computer age (LTC, I'm looking at you). The calluses on my hands say hello.
Cleaning an incontinent person, obese or not, sucks for sure. However, I'd much rather be the one doing the cleaning than the one who has to be cleaned.
Specializes in Critical Care at Level 1 trauma center.
Its okay not to like cleaning *** and ****. God knows I don't. You just have to look at what makes you happy. I am an ICU/RRT nurse, sure I have to clean poop but I also get to run codes, manage CRRT, and titrate pressors and sedation.
It was mentioned before that men usually want ICU or ER. I think there is some truth to this. I was one of the people who got into nursing to save lives and manage critical patients. Sure I wipe butt and even though I dont like to, I do it in a way that gives my patients dignity and respect.
I understand that you are having a hard time at your current job, its hard when you feel like you are a glorified maid. Put in your dues and learn as much as you can so that you can land a job outside of patient care.
Personally I love high acuity patient care, I love the patho and pharmacology that goes with being an ICU nurse. I hate cleaning poop but I look at is just one more chance to further assess my patient.
I would give you a few words of advice. 1st, its okay to hate cleaning poop and vomit, just make sure your patients never know how awful it is for you. 2nd, if you decide to stay in nursing go back to school AND KEEP YOUR GRADES UP! 3rd, if you are strong in school and dont mind hard work and taking on a lot of debt become a CRNA/NP. It is the most autonomous field and you are not really practicing nursing anymore. CRNA/NP are medical providers ​not nurses and you will no longer clean up body fluids. Just know that if you chose this route you will have to be at the top of you field, study a lot, deal with ungodly amounts of stress/liability, and work 10xs harder in school then you did in nursing school.
I do think that when one pursues a college degree in nursing, there's lots of thinking going on as opposed to the clinical skill/reality of nursing.
Theory and Evidence Based Practice are paramount to learning how to be a nurse. And in a nursing program, this is what is the theme is. Along with lots about delegation--even in my PN program, there was lots of talk about delegating. And on the NCLEX...again with the delegating. So it gives a nursing student with little to no experience the illusion that all the "dirty work" is to be delegated.
When one actually gets into a real job, however, all that one learned in school seems to take a back seat. The reality of nursing practice is different than schooling. And when one has not a person to delegate to, a nurse is left with having to do things themselves. Which is a contradiction to what one learns in school.
Although with all the "customer based" practice happening, it is not impossible to be a nurse and not do the "grunt work".
Nursing informatics, for one, can be done without necessarily having much bedside experience. Perhaps this is something you may want to pursue. Or a master's in business. There's more than one manager who has little to no bedside experience. But if you become a manager, remember your days of bedside care and perhaps advocate for your nurses to have the ratios they need to be successful.
If you want to use your brain and think--get a masters in education and teach. Get your legal nurse consultant. There's lots you can do, you just have to research a little. And I would stay and at least get a year or two in at bedside. That way, you have a good foundation on the other part of nursing that they don't get in depth with at school.
I love my nurse coaching career. I spent ten years at the bedside. ICU, med surge and 5 in the emergency room.
Best thing I did was get out of the hospital. Try working as a nurse in the community.
It's a whole different ballgame.
Very refreshing to work with patients that WANT to get better. After being in the ER so long, you start to wonder if people enjoy being sick. You know then, it's time to move on.
I thought, "Did I miss something?" If it was truly the case that we are a support group,, I don't know what on earth I could say to a new nurse that didn't like the tasks involved in nursing. Maybe what I tell my patients who feel it necessary to apologize for me having to clean up their poop, "It's just part of the job. Besides, the only thing on earth that really likes poop is a fly."
RescueNinjaKy
593 Posts
I think you're in the wrong place, all nurses is a public forum, not a support group. Of course you can find support here but to think that you can dictate the type of responses you want is ludicrous.