Nursing Jobs That Don't Involve Blood

If the idea of a nursing career appeals to you but the thought of blood makes you woozy, you might need to reconsider your career options. You can land a bloodless nursing job after you graduate from nursing school, but you can't get through nursing school without dealing with blood. If this is a deal breaker for you, consider other health careers, although you might find once you're in nursing school that blood doesn't bother you as much as you feared.


Nurses who work in management positions rarely have to get their hands dirty. But to get to a nurse manager or administrator position, you generally have to pay your dues by working for at least a few years on a medical or surgical floor, which means dealing with blood. If you plan to fast-track into management with minimum blood exposure, consider working on a psychiatric unit or in a long-term care facility, where bleeding isn't a daily event. Avoid surgical units, labor and delivery and postpartum floors, where blood flows frequently.


Clinical research positions for nurses aren't easy to come by, but if you're lucky enough to get one, you might not ever have to deal with blood. Then again, if you work with clinical trials that require frequent blood samples for testing or that require you to give injections of investigative medications, you might find yourself on the other end of a syringe on a regular basis. Before you take this type of job, ask what types of clinical trials you'll be involved with and whether drawing blood or giving injections will be part of your job.


Working for an insurance company doing case management, utilization or quality assurance reviews means never having to deal with blood, unless one of your coworkers gets a paper cut. These employers want people who already have worked as nurses for several years to gain the clinical expertise needed to assess claims and review documentation. But if you can stick it out that long, you can spend the rest of your nursing career blood-free.

Telephone Triage

Some offices hire nurses to man their after-hours lines or to answer and triage calls during the day. While you might not have to actually deal with blood, you might have to talk about it to patients. And most organizations that hire telephone triage nurses want someone who has hands-on experience in the field, so you will still have to put in your time in pediatrics or on a medical-surgical floor to get this type of job.

Medical Editor/Writer

If you don't mind writing about blood or other disorders and you have a way with words, medical writing or editing might provide you with a blood-free career option. Medical writers don't necessarily have a medical background, although it's helpful, so you don't have to have a certain number of years of nursing experience.