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?

Specializes in LTC.
I guess I understand your feeling as if the question writer shouldn't be a nurse, I get that. I take issue with the idea that if he/she is not interested in certain duties, that makes them arrogant. If you decide you don't want to do heart surgery, does that make you seem better than a heart surgeon??

I don't want to help people with that level of ADL either but I don't think people think I'm better than them. I don't want to teach 5th graders either, that doesn't mean I think 5th grade teachers are less than me or bad or stupid.

This questioner has a valid question and assuming they think they're better than you because you don't mind wiping butts is a complication in communication on your part.

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.

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This makes me very sad as it directly relates to one of the reasons that I am in nursing school now. I spent 6 days in a hospital, completely immobile with a Foley, and I never received any kind of bathing or linen changes. I finally had to get my husband to care for me; and my room was directly next to the nurses' station where I could hear all of the banter. Surprisingly, this happened at a very reputable hospital.

I have decided that I will do the tasks that some people avoid because I understand how important those tasks truly are to the patient. I hope that you reconsider, and that you truly have a change of heart. It is an important part of patient care. Just imagine yourself in that position. Wouldn't you want someone to care for you with a kind and merciful heart? :redbeathe

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All of you guys who are responding so negatively to the original question are offended because subconsciously you are ashamed of what you do. You really think it is a degrading job and you imply that the person is a goody too shoes and should go back to engineering because you are jealous and probably have nothing to fall back on - hence you are stuck wiping butts. Now do not start on me - everyone is entitled to their opinions, also I have a tough skin.

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If you decide you don't want to do heart surgery, does that make you seem better than a heart surgeon??

Holy non sequitur Batman! Your analogy doesn't fit the discussion. At all.

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Specializes in LTC, Home Health, Hospice.

I have read 7 pages...

Here is the summary: If you want to be a CNA...You've got to do the work. If you don't..then try another area like working in the kitchen..you can be sure that you won't have to wipe butts there..but you just might be serving up some stuff that looks like poop!

When I was in the SNF...Even the DON did some wipeing..

Regardless of what level you are..you will need to clean people..its part of Nursing.(nuture, care, provide for the mental and physical aspects of ones person)...

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Specializes in LTC, Home Health, Hospice.
All of you guys who are responding so negatively to the original question are offended because subconsciously you are ashamed of what you do. You really think it is a degrading job and you imply that the person is a goody too shoes and should go back to engineering because you are jealous and probably have nothing to fall back on - hence you are stuck wiping butts. Now do not start on me - everyone is entitled to their opinions, also I have a tough skin.

NOPE...NOPE...NOPE...NO TO ALL OF THE ABOVE!....RN's and LVN's :loveya:are replying to this same thread. Face it, if you decide you want to be a Nurse...then you have to do the dooty! (pun intended) It is what it is. :dncgbby::dncgbby:sorry..couldn't help myself...I just love dancing babies! :nurse:

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Specializes in Peds/outpatient FP,derm,allergy/private duty.
QUOTE=Shirdent;4414566]Interesting to read the replies to this question. Some nurses are just like dental hygienists! Just because this person doesn't like handling people physically doesn't make the person lazy or a potentially bad nurse. As was pointed out by a number of people, there are other jobs in nursing that don't require direct patient contact or help with ADLs.

I doubt very much the OP is lazy. Nurses today are able to specialize in all kinds of areas, both hands on and hands off. What has been lost in discussions of recent years is that when these specialties were developed, it was assumed that the person, as a nurse, grew out of a foundation of nursing that includes every potentially gross and disgusting thing you could possibly imagine and a tacit understanding that those things are simply what a nurse does.

I find this process of sanitizing and distancing from the roots of nursing care really offensive. In the early days of advanced practice and broadened management paths, you never would have heard the kinds of comments I am reading from some people here. You can be a good nurse if you don't like handling people physically?? That just takes the disconnect a little too far. A good nurse follows a track of a-b-c-d not a---d.

I could say the same about nurses who love that kind of thing and relate it to the lack of oral care we find in dependent people. It's not getting done, at all! Sure a handful of the people responding to this thread will say that they do oral care, let me assure you, you are in the minority.

Good nurses most certainly understand the importance of providing oral care. I won't dispute what you say you've seen with your own eyes in dependent care, but I am going to guess the problem is a lack of proper training and follow-through by the management of the facilities. I doubt very much that only a "handful" of CNAs and nurses here do oral care. Maybe you could start a thread about common problems you see and areas of improvement you think should happen so we can all learn from your expertise.

There is nothing better than knowing a patient is freshly bathed. Your fears might be that you haven't learned the techniques to make it bearable or even enjoyable. The CNA's have all the practical know how for the gross stuff. Let's all hope to make friends with the CNA's and learn how to do our jobs well.

And there is nothing worse than working with a nurse who never learned to bathe or clean a patient properly, and took a job where he or she would need to do that. I once helped a nurse in homecare by helping turn her patient while she cleaned her up. I couldn't let go of the lady to help, but let's just say it wouldn't be surprising to find her with a rash, a UTI and some skin tears no matter how I tried to help. The patient was whimpering.

All of you guys who are responding so negatively to the original question are offended because subconsciously you are ashamed of what you do. You really think it is a degrading job and you imply that the person is a goody too shoes and should go back to engineering because you are jealous and probably have nothing to fall back on - hence you are stuck wiping butts. Now do not start on me - everyone is entitled to their opinions, also I have a tough skin.

Ha ha ha. Do not start on me. I have tough skin. Subconscious realization that you are a troll combined with unexpressed desire to be publicly chastised and impotent ego-conception of chaos-control variability factors?

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Specializes in LTC, Psych, Hospice.
All of you guys who are responding so negatively to the original question are offended because subconsciously you are ashamed of what you do. You really think it is a degrading job and you imply that the person is a goody too shoes and should go back to engineering because you are jealous and probably have nothing to fall back on - hence you are stuck wiping butts. Now do not start on me - everyone is entitled to their opinions, also I have a tough skin.

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.

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Specializes in Medsurg/ICU, Mental Health, Home Health.
All of you guys who are responding so negatively to the original question are offended because subconsciously you are ashamed of what you do. You really think it is a degrading job and you imply that the person is a goody too shoes and should go back to engineering because you are jealous and probably have nothing to fall back on - hence you are stuck wiping butts. Now do not start on me - everyone is entitled to their opinions, also I have a tough skin.

Why, you little ---

Whoops, sorry, just got to the part that Carol asks us to not "start on" her.

And I had a series of clever comebacks for her...c'est dommage....

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Specializes in Renal; NICU.

This post is a joke, right? Nursing is caring and caring is nursing. Maybe if you really don't want to touch people, you really don't want to be a nurse.

Or you can climb that ladder to the administrative level, but you WILL clean some butts along the way!!! Or do an incredible amount of KISSING butts. :lol2:

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Well, first I wonder the reason behind the OP wanting to avoid the butt wiping and bathing. I could understand if they have a sensitivity like me, however, their approach is not proper.

Let me say that I have a very sensitive stomach and gag reflex when it comes to poo. It's not the look, it's the smell. I can handle looks and other smells, just not poo. I just got done with my 3 days of CNA clinicals this week.

My instructor swore that those of us who are sensitive to that smell could just turn our head when we needed to breath in and smell our scrubs. I guess she thought that the poo odor would not overcome the clean clothes smell, whatever. I believed her.

The home we went to, every resident is incontinent . My first day, I got the resident who had a "large" (per my instructor) bowel movement. I was fine when I saw it. I wiped the depend to get most of it out, did the breathing technique, got the whiff of it, and my eyes started watering and I could feel myself gagging. I wasn't making any noise and the resident couldn't see me (she was on her side, thank God!) My instructor (nicest lady) came over and cleaned her for me. I had to stand next to her, but I shoved my face in my shirt to and breathed through my mouth to try and not smell it. I made it, but not without her help.

The next day, I had to handle stale urine. That didn't bother me (despite some people saying it's worse than poo). I did have my Vick's in my nose and Altoids in my mouth, I was good to go.

I don't care what I have to shove in my nose to get over it. I know it's something I'll have to deal with, and I want to deal with it.

That being said, I love how the resident feels after a bath and after they get cleaned up. Even if I struggled with it, they are so grateful to be clean and smelling good. That's what it's about. It's not about what you go through to complete a task, it's about how the patient/resident feels afterwards.

But I do have to say that NONE of the nurses (LPN or RN) helped with patient care. None. All they did was pass meds and do g tube feedings. I have a friend who is an LPN at a different LTC and she never wipes butts or does baths. She mainly passes meds also.

Also, my friend's son went into a Children's hospital to have surgery. When he woke up, he saw his large wound and threw up everywhere and on himself. His mom got the nurse, she walked in and said "I'll get my aide to clean you up." WTH. She was right there, but she went to find her aide to clean him up.

Anyways, I have to say I have the most respect for CNA's. It's a hard task and I know I only got a tiny taste, but they are the hardest workers.

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When I was first a CNA, right out of high school, I don't really remember being bothered by the smells. In any event, I must have gotten used to it. I did other kinds of work for several years before going back and retaking CNA. We went into a room to clean a woman up. When he smell hit me, the room began to spin and I thought I was going to faint. I guess I'd forgotten about the smell. What I do, is mentally prepare myself for it. You do get used to it, I think.

I have to say, though, it seems like old people's poop smells worse than ANY other.

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