OT with a weak stomach?

[brigitte7723]

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Hi everyone,

I am really interested in becoming an OT. I have job shadowed in a hospital for a few days and I do like it. The only thing that concerns me is the woman I job shadow empties out Foley Catheters and helped wipe one woman's butt. She said her boss prefers that they just do it instead of calling a CNA. Do you know how common it is to wipe butts/handle gross things as an OT in a hospital/SNF? I don't think it would be bad once in awhile but I wouldn't want to be doing that all day.

 

[Whistle Pig]

You've not yet had any children, I take it? Babysat any infants?

The answer to how often depends upon your job selection. It's tempting to suggest you might want to consider another non-health related calling. Or neutering. But I won't.

 

[brigitte7723]

No I haven't! Yeah I was thinking that maybe Speech Pathology might be better? I would love to be able to work in a school as well as a hospital.

 

[WinginIt]

Then you probably won't like Anatomy. I know for sure there are programs that require labs in which you have to dissect a cadaver for a whole semester. Yes, that includes skinning, scraping fat, disemboweling, the whole bit. If you work in acute care, there are plenty of unpleasant smells and procedures you will have to deal with. Even if you don't end up working in a hospital setting, chances are you will have to do fieldwork eventually at an acute care facility. So, yea, sometimes there are gross things in the OT biz.

 

[lizzo76]

In my shadowing experience, the "grossness" factor really depends on the setting. There's potential grossness in every setting, but it's worse in hospitals (and probably nursing homes - haven't shadowed there yet.) In outpatient, OTs don't do anything like wiping butts or dealing with catheters, but some people come in unbathed and stinky, or with skin lesions and oozing wounds. In the hospital setting, even if it is not the responsibility of the OT to do tasks like your described, they will still come into contact with "gross" things every now and then. Even in simply volunteering at a hospital and talking to patients, I encountered numerous (old) patients farting loudly and really stinking up the area. I gag easily when it comes to things like that, and it was all I could do to control myself. It sounds immature and funny, but some people really have an involuntary response to things like that. Another woman repeatedly lost her adult diapers when I was trying to walk her. One man, um, shat his pants. Seriously.... so, in that setting, you just need a strong stomach. And of course there were all the wounds and skin conditions, and lack of bathing, etc.. It's just the typical stuff you would see in the course of being in patient quarters.

But to add... I really don't think that changing diapers and dealing with little kids who can't wipe themselves is the same as having to wipe the butt of a grown adult stranger. And changing catheters and wiping butts is also very different from dissection. I don't think that being creeped out by those two things means she should go into something else. Definitely DO NOT go into nursing, but you can certainly work an OT job without havng to do those things. Again, you will probably be exposed to some creepy things, but not necessarily as bad as what you describe.

 

[Shelby029]

No I haven't! Yeah I was thinking that maybe Speech Pathology might be better? I would love to be able to work in a school as well as a hospital.

I think speech would have its gross moments too. I've been around plenty of speech therapist and they are always sticking their hands in someone's mouths!

When you work in any service area you will come into contact with people that are unhygienic. In OT you'll be working in a much closer proximity to the patient. Many of the patients have disabilities which make it harder to clean themselves. However, none of the shadowing I've ever done has grossed me out...yet. 🙂

IMO having a weak stomach wouldn't be to bad. Gross Anatomy would be horrible for you, and maybe some of your clinicals in SNF. But if you got through that you'd be able to find a job you could handle I assume.

 

[OT2Be2013]

I think speech would have its gross moments too. I've been around plenty of speech therapist and they are always sticking their hands in someone's mouths!

When you work in any service area you will come into contact with people that are unhygienic. In OT you'll be working in a much closer proximity to the patient. Many of the patients have disabilities which make it harder to clean themselves. However, none of the shadowing I've ever done has grossed me out...yet. 🙂

IMO having a weak stomach wouldn't be to bad. Gross Anatomy would be horrible for you, and maybe some of your clinicals in SNF. But if you got through that you'd be able to find a job you could handle I assume.

If I may add my 2 cents... toileting oneself is a major activity of daily living, and evaluating/working on that will be part of the job if you decide to go into phys-dys. So is health management and maintenance (as per the Occupational Therapy Practice Framework)- which means you may be working on wound care, which has the potential to get a little gross. This applies to nursing facilities as well because part of our job is to manage and prevent skin breakdown. OTs are also active on burn units. I am talking specific to phys-dys though- if you can get through school, there are other areas to work in. Mental health, for example. But then, you are going to still be working with people with some degree of impairment in their ability to take care of themselves, so the potential to be grossed out is there too but you won't necessarily be exposed to it constantly.

Gross anatomy is something you'll just have to get through. After about a week in the lab, most people get used to it.

 

[AutumnGrl]

I think it would be pretty difficult to find a job in healthcare that does not deal with "gross" things. A SLP can also deal with people vomiting, when they are teaching them to eat or drink to strengthen their muscles.