Trying to avoid undesirable CNA duties

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Does anybody know of any CNA jobs where you don't have to wash the patients or or wipe butts? Also I'm a sophomore BSN student with an associates in engineering and 6 months volunteer work at a hospital and worked in plant engineering at another hospital. Might any of this helps with job oppertunities where I don't have to wipe or wash people?

A nurse is not above "butt wiping" work. I worked at a hospital where a dr asked the nurse to help clean up a patient, the nurse responded " Let me get the PCT" the dr said " Uhh no, you and I can do it, we are not above patient care" I thought that was sooo awesome!!

I agree no ones too good to help someone else but i'm just looking for something I will enjoy more while still helping people. I don't see anything snooty about that.

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Yeah, but you're not trying to be a heart surgeon or a 5th grade teacher. That's the difference. This person is asking how to be a CNA without having to do personal care, which is 90% of what a CNA does. And you have to admit that even if this person's aversion to butt wiping isn't coming from a place of arrogance, the way the post was worded certainly suggested that.

well the reason I wanted to be a cna is to get exposure to hopsital environment and i've been told I could be a sitter where all i do is sit and watch people. I specifically asked them if I had to do pericare and so forth and they said no. I agree i either need to get more used to washing butts or find a nursing job that doesn't entail it or go into a completely different field. But I would always take care of my patients whether some people on here want to believe it or not otherwise i would get a diffrent job. I understand how my question could of been offensive to some but it wasn't meant to be and i apologize it was a bad choice of words. And calling me names like lazy and arrogant is pointless because it doesn't solve any problems. If you really want to keep lazy arrogant people out of nursing offer helpful suggestions and alternatives for them and leave your emotions and name calling out of it. :)

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Specializes in Peds/outpatient FP,derm,allergy/private duty.
QUOTE=misty246;4419964]Well, I have worked in 3 hospitals as a CNA, LPN, RN and in the RN role, charge nurse for 9 years. Even as charge nurse I had to clean up after patients and enjoyed doing it because I can imagine that made them feel better.

The charge nurse who helps clean up patients reaps much more than he or she sows when she rolls up her sleeves to help. Staff nurses and CNAs notice these things. Two incidents years ago have stuck in my mind to this day. One, I was still a pretty new nurse taking care of a depressed and withdrawn 17 year old s/p leg amputation for osteosarcoma and finding it more difficult to turn him to clean. I asked the Nurse Manager if someone could help. .. she just said, "aw, c'mon, let's do this thing. . .:)" and she went in, she was efficient and cheerful and I could tell she had done it many times before. Obviously, her job entailed a lot of paperwork and scheduling and phone calls, but I still believe there are times when there isn't anything urgent going on.

The second was a doctor I worked with in outpatient when a lady rushed her screaming 2 yr old with a huge fecal impaction 5 minutes after closing, this doc stopped the receptionist from shooing them off someplace else, told me to put him in a room, then the doc put on a glove and disimpacted the little boy himself. I would walk over nails for a person like that. Most people work harder for someone they know understands their job and doesn't have a "below my pay grade" attitude.

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As I said to one coworker who asked how I handle CNA duties after spending so much time in corporate America, "I'll tell you this: I would much rather wipe butts than kiss them!"

Amen to that!!! :yeah::yeah::yeah::yeah:

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I agree with practically everyone here that maybe nursing is not for you. But you may get into phone triage or insurance nursing when you finish and you wont touch a patient at all. Someone said in a previous reply pysch is an option but what about the times when your psych patient wants to smear poop on the walls. Patient interaction is one of the best things about nursing. I love patient care not necessarily poop but it doesnt bother me.

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Specializes in Acute Care, Rehab, Palliative.
Well the thing is I love helping people that are in life threatning situations. I've looked at the coast guard and army maybe being a flight nurse, assisting in surgery etc. where I must have a certain knowledge level of the body but is "on the front line" so to speak in literally saving lives. Its not that its gross wiping butts its just I want to aim higher in skilled work but I know I will have to do some of this but I do not want this to be my main duties as a nurse. although I realize its very important to do and MUST be done I want to help people in other ways and feel like I'm living up to my potential if that makes any sense.

So in other words you are looking for a "glamour" job.And you expect nursing to be like it is on TV,adrenalin pumping, always a crisis, with everyone looking to you "save the day"? You talk about wanting to help people in life threatening situations.What makes you think basic patient care doesn't matter? Changing and repositioning a wet/soiled pt helps prevent pressure sores which can lead to serious infection and fist sized ulcers.You ARE saving a life.Properly cleaning and positioning a patient IS a skill.When you have a patient that cannot move themselves in bed means they are at the mercy of the person that is supposed to be making them comfortable.

Please don't become a nurse.

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Specializes in LTC, Home Health, Hospice.
The OP stated he/she was in a BSN program but was working as a CNA. There is nothing degrading about being a CNA. I have worked with some excellent CNA's and some crappy (pun intended) ones. We are simply trying to let the OP know that he he/she DOES want to be a good nurse personal hygeine in important for the pts well being. Just because the letters behind the name have changed doesn't been a life of sitting behind the station looking cute. A person is never above providing personal hygeine.

Gosh, I :redpinkhe:redpinkhe:redpinkheLOVE:redbeathe:redbeathe:redbeathe your responses....and your support!:yeah::yeah::yeah:

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Specializes in Peds/Neo CCT,Flight, ER, Hem/Onc.
Well the thing is I love helping people that are in life threatning situations. I've looked at the coast guard and army maybe being a flight nurse, assisting in surgery etc. where I must have a certain knowledge level of the body but is "on the front line" so to speak in literally saving lives. Its not that its gross wiping butts its just I want to aim higher in skilled work but I know I will have to do some of this but I do not want this to be my main duties as a nurse. although I realize its very important to do and MUST be done I want to help people in other ways and feel like I'm living up to my potential if that makes any sense.

I've worked NICU, PICU, SICU, ER and a whole lot of Flight/Transport which pretty much constitutes "skilled work" as you put it. Guess what...I cleaned up a lot of stool in every one of those jobs. There isn't a nursing job around that has this as its "main duty" it just comes with the territory. We are, all of us no matter where we work, on the front-line of saving lives. Believe me the jobs I've mentioned are not nearly as glamorous as they appear on TV. You must learn to take the mundane with the exhilarating. Perhaps focusing on what area of nursing you want to work in in the future rather than one tiny aspect of nursing care would serve you much better and make it easier to tolerate the less than pleasant tasks. Every mess you clean up in nursing school and as a CNA is one more step toward graduating. Living up to your potential IS going to include having to deal with the unpleasantness of some bodily functions. Just being smart isn't enough. You must be compassionate as well and learn to not sweat the small stuff. In the world of nursing cleaning up stool is the small stuff.

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Specializes in Oncology/Haemetology/HIV.
Well the thing is I love helping people that are in life threatning situations. I've looked at the coast guard and army maybe being a flight nurse, assisting in surgery etc. where I must have a certain knowledge level of the body but is "on the front line" so to speak in literally saving lives. Its not that its gross wiping butts its just I want to aim higher in skilled work but I know I will have to do some of this but I do not want this to be my main duties as a nurse. although I realize its very important to do and MUST be done I want to help people in other ways and feel like I'm living up to my potential if that makes any sense.

And when you are on the "front line" or in flight line doing that "higher skilled"work requiring knowledge, and the pt vomits or pees or has a bowel movement, exactly who do YOU think is going to clean the pt? Are you going to have them land the plane, to find a CNA to handle the poop, or maybe that's the stewardesses job? You think that the copter goes to autopilot and the pilot comes back to do it? You think one of the medicos that has been running under fire, trying to scoop their buddies up, bloodied and wounded, and transport to your care, needs to stop that and help you clean urine? If there is pt that has pooped during surgery and you have a room full of surgeons, anesthesia, surgury techs, scrub nurses (in and out of sterile situations) and circulator nurse that does not have to be sterile, who do you think handles the bodily fluids?

I hate to tell you but the more skilled, you go in nursing (ICUs, circulator, BMT, NICU, flight) the fewer assistants that there are, and the more poop you handle.

A suggested experiment - perhaps the next time that you are ill, you should lie in your own urine/stools for several hours. It might change your perspective a bit. Or care for someone that was in the extended care of someone that was so busy doing "higher skilled" work that they developed a stage 3 or 4 decub.

You do not like the answers that you have gotten. That's understandable. But you go on to get upset that people have not been very receptive to your ideas of a job in secretion-free, dirt-free Nursing job. The fact is "exciting" nursing jobs involves poop, pee, blood and mucus, and cleaning, along with all those higher skills that you aspire to.

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Thank You for your input caroladybelle. :)

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to orange juice > Well handling poop has gotten easier I think my main problem is fear of catching something. I think if I educate my self more on what I can catch and can't if I don't handle it properly will relax my nerves a little when I have to wipe a patient again. But for some reason blood, mucouse pee, or anything else doesn't bother nearly as much as cleaning poop and from what I've been told they don't have to tell the CNA's what contagiouse diseases patients are able to transmit to you because privacy laws etc. You just have to use "standard precautions" which i think is unfair because I believe the nurses know so how come CNA's arent privy to that information? Just to sum it up , just in case you guys havn't figured it out my reasons or my main concerns with quote "undesirable CNA duties" (I apologize again) is fear of catching something. Anybody out there with POSITIVE helpful info feel free to reply.

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Specializes in M/S, ICU, ICP.

sniff sniff...... smells like a fire starter to me. or maybe just a troll. not sure. but still this post reminds me of the odor of c diff .....

i just cannot believe this one's for real. i cannot imagine anyone in healthcare thinking they won't have to deal with body fluids.

that is like saying i want to be a dentist but i don't want to work with teeth. it just is not realistic.

if body fluids distress anyone that much, health care is just not the area for them.

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