Code Brown

I was listening to the radio the other day as some experts discussed the nursing shortage here in SC and across the nation. A lot of reasons were given as to the reasons for the nursing shortage from pay rates to demographics to what have you. But they really danced around the key issue why many choose not to go into nursing. The reason people choose not to go into nursing is because they have to clean up shit all day long.

Among nurses, it is called a "code brown." This is a euphemism for some crusty old decrepit fart who has shit the bed and is now laying in it. To an 18-year-old female considering a career in nursing, the prospect of a lifetime of this kind of work is just too much. They might change their minds when they hit 40, have already tended to children and family members, and now need a job because they lost their good looks and can no longer hook a man to support their sorry fat asses. But when you are young and good looking, cleaning dirty asses is not very appealling.

There is no shortage of doctors, EMT's, paramedics, respiratory therapists, pharmacists, X-Ray techs, etc. But there is almost always an acute shortage of nurses. The difference between those professions and nursing is the code brown. Some will argue that RN's are exempt from cleaning up shit, but this simply isn't true much the same way that a manager at McDonald's is not exempt from flipping burgers. If you work as a nurse, you will have to clean up shit. Sorry 'bout it.

It's a dirty job, but someone has to do it.

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