Nursing Students - question re the "unsavouries" about nursing...

[mumoftom]

Hi All :wave:

Am seeking advice. I have wanted to work in the health industry since I left school - a long time ago now - and these last few years I've been contemplating studying nursing. I am going to apply to do the Certificate of Health Care at Griffith next year but would love some first hand advise about how you all handled giving needles, wound management and cleaning up other's poo. Perhaps some of you may think I shouldnt even venture into this field if I'm concerned about any of this but I reckon I would make an awesome nurse, I'm just wondering what the practical training is like to get there.

I've had some experiance volunteering at the Mater in the oncology ward. OK, I only massaged feet, but there were a few days where I encountered vomit and poo practically first hand, and got to watch lots of drips being put into the patients. The feacal sp? smell was bad and I had to swallow very hard so as not to gag. I couldnt understand why the poor woman was left next to the bed to "finish" after she called the nurse to complain about the pain she was in. Obviously from she had passed something. The other 3 patients stuck in the room werent very appreciative either - but now I"m rambling and thats a whole other story....

I guess I'd just like to hear how other students got on at the beginning of the practical training and generally how people cope with it.

Many thanks!

[Zeal]

Hi there,

I am an RN. I started out working in an aged care facility and worked as an AIN through my degree. That is where you see the most faeces and some of the most gross pressure wounds!! However, you see alot more blood, vomit and different wound types in actual hospitals. You still also see alot of faeces if you work on a general ward. I pesonally just got used to it, lets face it, your never really going to like it!

There are rewarding points to nursing, like meeting nice people and having people thank you for all the work that you do. However, to be honest, there are times whe you get verbal abuse for no good reason and times when there are just not enough staff to cope with the patient load - which can make the job very demanding and very stressful. If you work in a relatively large hospital like I did (Nepean) the stress levels can get very high and the work load can seem way too much.

So, what I have done is changed direction and begun a post grad in child and family health nursing, where I hope that the environment will be much better.

Good luck :)