How long does it take to get over being squeamish??

Some people never do and others quickly, this is one area where someone else's experience really means very little. What exactly are you sqeamish about? A little more info might help give you an answer worth typing out!

I was very sqeamish when I first started. I remember going into A&P and looking at all of the eyeballs in the bucket and feeling like I was in the twightlight zone.
Then in my first semester of clinicals, I was in the OR and watched a nephrectomy....very bloody. I was really afraid that I might pass out. At first I was very nervous, but I slowly got used to it. After watching a few surgeries....needles, IV's, etc....all seem so less invasive, not much bothers me anymore. Stick with it, you will eventually get "desensitized."

Exposure is the key, just like above poster said. With more exposure, you will get desensitized to blood, guts and gore and who knows...eventually you could become like so many nurses I know, who run to watch really weird procedures & treatments and to sneak a peak at unusually large or dramatic wounds. The sadness of the human experience with suffering and dying is not something I've ever gotten inured to, but the amazing things that we can do to our bodies and still live to tell, fascinates the heck out of me!

Never been squeemish. There are somethings I definately prefer not to see or smell. Not sure if lots of exposure will help desensitize you.

Never been squeemish. There are somethings I definately prefer not to see or smell. Not sure if lots of exposure will help desensitize you.

Before I became a nurse, I could pass out simply upon entering a doctors office ! LOL.
It took me awhile to become accustomed to the blood and guts. I started out as a CNA, and I think that made the transition a little easier to take. Now, I'm more fascinated than queasy. I got to observe a colectomy last week in clinicals. The lady's guts were literally lying outside of her open abdomen. The surgeon even allowed me to peer inside the gut to observe the metastized cancer on her liver.
Man, I couldn't have imagined in a million years that I could have ever been able to handle something like that. I mean I've passed out probably a dozen times from injections or blood draws.
Bottom line is: Hang in there, don't ever let anyone tell you that you're not cut out for the profession. You will get used to it !