What does pediatric nursing involve?

Are there any careers in nursing that don't involve a lot of blood and gross/disturbing things?

• I'm considering a career in nursing and i've been doing reasearch for some time now but everything seems to revolve around heavy amounts of blood and things that i think would ...show more

• Answer:

  Whatever research you've been doing, you're doing it wrong and listening to the wrong people and opinions. Not many nursing jobs deal with a lot of blood. If you don't like gross wounds and trauma don't work in the ER or the OR. Sure, all nurses will see some blood at some point, but there are lots of jobs where that is really really minimal. As for "gross" stuff like vomit, feces, etc., well, that's something you might see just about anywhere, and nobody LIKES having to deal with it, but you do get used to it and when you are in the moment you just put your professional face on and just do it. And honestly, although nurses are not "above" having to do those clean-up tasks, we are often expected to delegate those tasks to nursing assistants and LPNs (if available). You do become more desensitized to these things after time. And really, it's such a small part of the job, like less than 5% of my time, maybe even less than 1% on most days is spent dealing with "gross" stuff. When you're passionate about the job you're doing and can see the bigger picture, when you understand that these poor patients who are the cause of your "gross" experience are in pain, are at their most vulnerable and likely embarrassed about having someone else clean up after them, you understand the importance of the work you do and how you go about doing it.