Want to be a nurse, just no butt wiping or other yucky stuff please

[Emergent]

Just a heads up to inquiring people who read this site. Nursing involves butt wiping, blood, snot, urine, etc. An RN by your name doesn't mean others deal with yucky realities of patient care.

Also, you will likely have to pay your dues job wise. You probably won't waltz into your dream job straight out of school. And, whatever job you get, you WILL work your rear end off.

[Here.I.Stand, BSN, RN]

Then he had the gall to accuse me of "using his male strength to my advantage and making him do something he worked in dialysis NOT to have to do" (he did not want to work in a hospital and get the hands dirty; too bad, dialysis can be messy and hard work too!!!)

Did he think ESRD patients' stool production was on par with their urine production??

SOMEONE put in his head the idea that we just delegate all that to our technicians. I am unsure who, but I set him straight. Too bad I had to do that at all.

He and NOADLS must have gone to nursing school together

[Here.I.Stand, BSN, RN]

Pineapple juice is an awesome tenderizer!

Gee, and here I thought that @TheCommuter was about to get a Lawry's seasoning salt promotional contract for product placement!! :)

I'm so calloused you would probably need straight MSG to get me prepped. Too much time in psych, social services, medical foster care and on CPS teams prior to nursing. No wonder no one finds me appetizing. I will try not to be spirit wounded over this fact.

[kalycat, BSN, RN]

Pineapple juice is an awesome tenderizer!

I will be sure to run (away?) when the biter nurses start chasing me with juice cans...or juice boxes...or whatever. I will know my time has come!

[Tinkk]

Haha, having worked as a CNA for the past year, this really doesn't bother me at all

[Mavrick, BSN, RN]

And you ain't lived until you get to take a 60% burn patient into the tank room. Let's start with they don't have good temperature control so the room is HOT and HUMID. Crank up the sprayer and wash burnt dead skin down the drain scraping off the more hesitant pieces with a wash cloth (some say it's the best debridement tool). Maybe a pair of scissors and pick-ups to cut away stuff that is still attached. Now that we're all bright pink and bleeding slop on the Silvadene cream and gauze 'em up like the Mummy. And watch your footing 'cuz the floor is now as slippery as a KFC bathroom while you wheel 'em back to their room still wearing the full-on plastic apron that is just as wet on the inside with sweat as the outside is with liquid burnt dead skin particles.

A fine day all in all when your spouse asks if you have been to a Bar B Que because you smell like burnt hair. And tomorrow wash, rinse repeat.

What is really sick is I loved the satisfaction of getting that old skin off. I couldn't believe they were paying me to do this job.

[AnnieOaklyRN, BSN, RN, EMT-P]

aaaah.... I

[RNsRWe, ASN, RN]

I have to wonder if anyone has ever recognized THEMSELVES in some of these postings? I mean, some of the descriptions are so detailed....and LOTS of nurses come through here.....just wondering.

[Farawyn]

And you ain't lived until you get to take a 60% burn patient into the tank room. Let's start with they don't have good temperature control so the room is HOT and HUMID. Crank up the sprayer and wash burnt dead skin down the drain scraping off the more hesitant pieces with a wash cloth (some say it's the best debridement tool). Maybe a pair of scissors and pick-ups to cut away stuff that is still attached. Now that we're all bright pink and bleeding slop on the Silvadene cream and gauze 'em up like the Mummy. And watch your footing 'cuz the floor is now as slippery as a KFC bathroom while you wheel 'em back to their room still wearing the full-on plastic apron that is just as wet on the inside with sweat as the outside is with liquid burnt dead skin particles.

A fine day all in all when your spouse asks if you have been to a Bar B Que because you smell like burnt hair. And tomorrow wash, rinse repeat.

What is really sick is I loved the satisfaction of getting that old skin off. I couldn't believe they were paying me to do this job.

*cough*

the dead skin sounds like fun.

I've always wanted to work with burn patients, but I really don't have the chops for it. I think it would break me down every single day. Kudos to you.

[Libby1987]

Was precepting a new nurse once where I work. A patient on dialysis pooped himself during treatment (even when they ask to go, it takes a few minutes because we have to rinse back their blood and be sure they are stable to come off). He just could not wait.

He had briefs in his bag, so I put him in his wheelchair on chux, and rolled him to the bathroom. My preceptee let me do all the work and shut the door behind me.

Fine, I can get this. Well, the job was bigger than I thought and I could not singlehandedly hold the man up and wipe his rear end, so I put on the call light. Another nurse came, and I asked her to send in my preceptee, telling him to help me.

He stood at the door, gagging, asking me what he was supposed to do. I said "get your butt in here, shut the door and help me out here"!

He truly had no clue what to do, so I instructed him step by step, while trying recover what little was left of the patient's dignity. He had lost sight of the fact that there was a human being in there to clean up and get back on treatment.

Then he had the gall to accuse me of "using his male strength to my advantage and making him do something he worked in dialysis NOT to have to do" (he did not want to work in a hospital and get the hands dirty; too bad, dialysis can be messy and hard work too!!!)

I set him straight in a private one-to-one talk in our med room after that. Basically telling him to get lost and get another job if he thought he was gonna sit at a desk all day and chart. I guess he realized I was serious after that.

SOMEONE put in his head the idea that we just delegate all that to our technicians. I am unsure who, but I set him straight. Too bad I had to do that at all.

I'm so bummed that you didn't say, "Okay, I'll hold him up while you clean. And I expect sparkling!"

[RNsRWe, ASN, RN]

I'm so bummed that you didn't say, "Okay, I'll hold him up while you clean. And I expect sparkling!"

Read my mind. I'd also be adding "and make sure you get in right close to the orifice, really spread those cheeks so you can get every last tiny bit off!"

Of course that would have to be added out of earshot of the poor patient who had to go through all that

[SmilingBluEyes]

OH BUT that would be "eating my young" and "bullying" I am sure!!!!

I'm so bummed that you didn't say, "Okay, I'll hold him up while you clean. And I expect sparkling!"

[FineAgain]

I have a 1.2 GPA and flunked the HESI 6 times. I realllllllly want to be a nurse, it is my dreeeeeam. But I will only settle for Duke and they won't accept me. I don't know why, could someone tell me what I am doing wrong?