Less blood and guts in psych nursing?

Any psych nurses have thoughts on this:

Do you have less exposure to blood and other body fluids in psych? I realize that patients will spit on you, urinate on you, etc. I work ER now and it seems like I get some blood or something else on me once a week.
Before anyone flames me yes I realize this is a part of nursing.

I would have posted this on the psych board but it doesn't seem to have much traffic. Thanks!
We still get blood on us, from cutters and other wounds that we must care for: think infected IV drug users and wounds from fights and falls. Also, you still give shots, so there is always the risk, there, too. As for guts, well....we get scabies, lice, and the occasional positive TB (thank goodness nothing active.) Also, once fall hits, all of our patients seem to have depressed immune systems due to their poor health habits, so it is virus/bacteria central. I haven't had anyone spit or pee on me, per se, but they do tend to pee/poop/puke on themselves or their rooms quite regularly, so we need to help get them cleaned up. I hope this answers your questions.

I worked in a state run mental hospital for 8 years while I figured out what I wanted to do with life and the whole time I was in nursing school. During that time I saw urine, blood, feces, and spit being deliberately thrown at staff. Took bleeding patients to the ER after they shoved a finger up their nose to make it bleed, split their head open after taking way too many sedatives and fell, dehised with an abdominal surgery, had their nose broken during a patient fight, were infected with c diff and had uncontrollable diarrhea....Maybe check out clinic nursing?

It depends on the type of psych unit....acute vs residential or whatever. I work on a non-acute residential unit and we don't have much blood and guts. I work with teen sex offenders and most are on po meds but we do give IM zyprexa when one gets out of control. Some of the kids have enuresis, but its still not as "messy" whatsoever compared to when I worked ICU. I never have to wipe a butt or anything of that sort. My job is pretty stress free overall and easy compared to most nursing jobs. I love it.Psych is just a different type of nursing all together. Sometimes you are teaching basic basic skills, but a lot of my pts never had parents vwho taught them to brush your teeth, take a shower, how to wash clothes let along basic coping and other life skills. We deal mostly with behavior issues witg some medical (sz disorders, broken hands from hitting the wall, asthma, etc).I really like my job : ) You do need good staff and enough of them especially if you need to restrain a patient.

Hi OP - I've never worked in the ER but I definitely think there is less bodily fluids in psych.I worked acute and longer term adolescent psych and....Patients with anorexia often get very creative where they vomit and that requires cleaning up but they have never vomited on mePatients cut - and you deal with blood but seeing as unless its spurting I wouldn't dress it until they were calm and cooperative it rarely got on me beyond my gloves.Patients do spit sometimes if they are restrained or to get you to back off - thankfully we didn't do a lot of restraints and we kept towels handy as shieldsPatients who are catatonic or even some who are acutely psychotic sometimes need a lot of help toileting so I have done that...and wrestling to change diapers on acutely psychotic teens can definitely get messy. Catatonic patients seem to like to poop in the tub.I've seen enuresis and encopresis but again - not on me!Occasional fecal smearing from patients with developmental delaysThere have been weeks where I haven't encountered any bodily fluids and other weeks when it was frequent..but I think compared to the ER - the quantity would seem like nothing!!

Thanks for all the replies thus far. I really appreciate that I am getting constructive answers.

acute psychthere are very little fluids... not any i've seen.. just minor blood drip from the cuts on the wrist,, but superficial..

Interesting thread, as I have now noticed that I think I want to move into adolescent psych. My adults can be pretty gnarly.

Even in the high-dollar, first class psych hospitals there are big problems. One of my best friends worked in such a hospital and one of her patients set himself on fire....and of course there is the variety of all that has already been mentioned. And of course, they try (and do) hang themselves sometimes.

Quote from katkonkEven in the high-dollar, first class psych hospitals there are big problems. One of my best friends worked in such a hospital and one of her patients set himself on fire....and of course there is the variety of all that has already been mentioned. And of course, they try (and do) hang themselves sometimes.

I combined the two and worked psych ER...A week into it I had a guy in the waiting room carve his forehead open before I could get him back so he could get the "bugs" out of his head. When I got him back to a seculsion room (already oozing) I started taking his blood and he ripped the butterfly out and swung it at me like some kind of nunchuck...blood everywhere. Thank goodness I wear glasses, they were covered in blood and kept it out of my eyes.Moral of this story, psych= unpredictable you never know whats coming thru the door. Its not just take your meds and talk about your problems, even on the impatient floors. I have seen patients be stable and calm for a week inpatient then attempt to hang themselves with thier underwear out of the blue. Thats before they #2 on the floor and pick it up bare handed to ask you if you want to get rid of it. There is a wide spectrum of patients in the psych community. Unfortunately there are no fluid guarantees in psych either..good try though

Yes, I work in sub-acute psych and there are much less bodily fluids than there are on medical units. A key reason I chose this specialty is because there is less poop....some people have a problem with that, but that is their problem alone, because I am quite happy with my job and my rationales behind it!

Well, depends on what you mean by "blood and guts." I see no "guts" in psych, meh... blood happens, certainly bodily fluids! Then again, psych is the only specialty I've worked where I've been bitten, punched, kicked, pushed and choked.