1 thing....

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I'd hafta agree w/ the poop thing -- I don't care for it at all. (Good) CNA's often take the brunt of it but often, you're the one that's there and you definitely can't look down your nose at participating in such a basic job, plus its a basic function of your patient and you don't want to give off the negative vibes for something that they can't really help. CNA's can/will pick up on your attitude if you always don't do your part in trying to help them if you're there and can, and they'll make themselves more available to other nurses and their patients that are decent to them w/o the attitude or vibes. Recently, I've to hand-squeeze out a contact pt's colostomy pouch into the toilet -- I still remember that distinct smell of spicy pepperoni stool that almost made me lose it in the surgical mask I was wearing. lol. good times. Expect periodic diaper changes on incontinent patients as your roll on their side to check for bedsores or listen to their lungs -- often easier to do it yourself than leave the pt as is to try and assign it to a CNA.

Additionally, as a new nurse, I'll add that I really don't care for having to PIE-chart either -- much rather spend my time doing pt care. Night shift where I'm at usually has to do the majority of blood draws around 5am so the labs are back in time for the doctors near the start of day-shift -- I'm getting much better at collecting blood but sometimes trying to find a decent vein on someone (esp the morbidly obese) is frustrating and time-consuming. And I like having to start an IV even less, but I'm sure that I'll get much better w/ that too in time.

That said, the work can be highly gratifying. Gestures of kindness amongst the care you're giving to patients are most often overlooked considering that they're usually sick or debilitated in some fashion, such that you learn to not expect a response, so when you get someone's heartfelt thanks for something kind and natural you've done, it can be very heart-warming.

I think the only real regret that I occasionally have is that Nursing wasn't my first career. I often wish that the time I'd spent in my other career was instead in Nursing so I could be more efficient in helping some of my patients.

I don't have any regrets on being a nurse. I luckily work in the PICU with a lot of male RN's and we try to make it fun and get the job done effectively. There are those few however that believe nurses should be like Florence Nightengale and wear white caps and all.

One of the best things about nursing for me is working with all the cool machines such as ECMO.