Scared to faint

[padme007]

Hello all!

I am a novice nurse and will be starring my ER training in a couple of months through my employer, which will result in a position in the ER. I have always wanted to be an ER nurse, I find I thrive under pressure and enjoy days that keep me on my toes.

Anyway, I have developed this fear that I'll pass out in the ER. I have only passed out twice in my life, once as a reaction to codeine after an oral surgery and once when I got a nose piercing. However, when I was in my first year of nursing school, I got lightheaded and saw stars when I watched a wound care nurse pull what seemed like an endless ribbon of packing out of an abdominal wound. I also usually have to lay down when I get blood drawn or veins accessed for any reason. Then, just a few months ago I had the opportunity to watch an angio and right as the doc was about to access the radial artery I felt like I was going to hit the floor. I had to look away and it resolved but I felt like an idiot because the angio nurse was like "oh you might want to look at this!" And I couldn't. I did however observe an ART line being put in before with no issues but I was also directly involved in the patients care.

So it's not like it's a major issue for me but it is in the back of my mind since I will be surrounded by traumas. Any thoughts? Have you ER nurses ever had issues with lightheadedNess?

[NurseOnAMotorcycle, ASN, RN]

I read this post early this morning and just didn't have a good answer. I'm returning now to see that I wasn't alone since you haven't gotten any other replies yet.

The only thing I can say is that the ER , OR, and ICU have the highest incidents of "gross bloody stuff" but are not (by far!) the only places to have a regular dosage of faint-worthy sights/sounds/smells. You will either vagal out or you won't. Then you will know if you can continue or have to look for a less acute setting to be a nurse.

I hope it is something you can get past as you seem to have a lot of passion for the emerg. dept.

Good luck!

[CBlover, BSN, RN]

Before I became a nurse I used to get queasy at the sight of blood. And there have been only 2 times while in nursing school that I thought I might faint - once seeing a lady partsl delivery and the second seeing an art line put in as well. It doesn't sound like you have any more issue with it than I did and I have done fine. I've never even come close to fainting since I became an RN.

[offlabel]

People who vagal and/or pass out are nearly 100% observers. They are not active participants in the scene. An as an ER nurse, you'll have a role in the event and will be able channel the stressful emotion that you'll experience in to a productive participation. Don't worry about it.

[CBlover, BSN, RN]

People who vagal and/or pass out are nearly 100% observers. They are not active participants in the scene. An as an ER nurse, you'll have a role in the event and will be able channel the stressful emotion that you'll experience in to a productive participation. Don't worry about it.

Excellent point.

[melmacrn]

I've been an ER nurse for a little over two years (as a new grad). Before the ER, I fainted during an abdominal packing, an epidural, a wound scrub, an even before a cesarean section even started! I still faint if I'm poked with needles. Lol. It makes me empathetic towards my patients. To this day, I haven't fainted while being an ER nurse. Almost everyone has fainted--or near fainted. Some of our best tenured nurses have faint stories! In the ER. I've relieved tenured nurses because they are getting pale and woozy!

I was terrified of starting my job and fainting. The more I focused on the fear, the worse it was. You're so busy and overwhelmed the first year of the ER that you don't have time to worry about your fear. It will pass. Don't give up and you'll be laughing at your old fainting stories later along with other nurses. I promise! [emoji4].

[bgxyrnf, MSN, RN]

I was *very* squeamish prior to nursing school and had a couple of near-syncopal events during school. Over a very short time as a nurse, though, I became desensitized, in part because you need to focus on what you're doing and not on what's happening to them. Very little bothers me at this point although a few months ago, I had a patient come in with metastatic breast cancer and had a huge, necrotic wound on her chest to which her dirty sweatshirt was adhered. That I was OK with. When I peeled the shirt back and saw a bunch of maggots wriggling around in the wound, I almost hoarked.