Nurse Quirks

Nurses General Nursing

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Tiffanybaybay

40 Posts

So at first I thought, wow, these people are all crazy I don't do anything like that, then i looked down at my air mattress. LMBO!!!

I tossed my mattress and insist on sleeping on an air mattress because of the constant exposure to bedbugs at my job. We even found a couple at work and put them in a specimen cup! UGH! Well they can't crawl very far and they live in mattresses or walls...

So I promptly threw away my old mattress and sleep on an air mattress in the middle of my room to insure I would NOT have the lovely experience of being attacked by bedbugs. They totally freak me out.

lol, I don't even tell anyone that cuz I think they'll think I'm crazy, like all of you guys! LOL

Specializes in Peds Hem, Onc, Med/Surg.

I am really disgusted by toes. Before nursing I never had a problem.

I have dealt with some really ugly feet and for some reason it just disgusts me. I don't want to see nobodies toes! Especially older people toes. Baby and kids toes are ok but I don't want them anywhere near me.

It might have to do something with that one patient I had..............his toe fell off and we had to look for it in the bedsheets. *puke*

somenurse

470 Posts

I am really disgusted by toes. Before nursing I never had a problem.

I have dealt with some really ugly feet and for some reason it just disgusts me. I don't want to see nobodies toes! Especially older people toes. Baby and kids toes are ok but I don't want them anywhere near me.

It might have to do something with that one patient I had..............his toe fell off and we had to look for it in the bedsheets. *puke*

oh i kinda identify. I have a whole thing, about eyeballs.

for real, eyeballs, eyeball injuries, foreign objects in eyeballs,

even a really detailed STORY about an eyeball injury, can almost make me swoon.

mind you, i am otherwise very durable nurse. I *could* change a colostomy, or hold an amputated limb AND eat my lunch, if that were allowed or possible,

generally, i am the last one to puke at work.

but, eyeballs, oh my, i get cold sweats, see lil dots and hear that high-pitch "wheeeeeee" noise one hears right before they pass out.

Another nurse in the ER, she had whole thing about nosebleeds, could not bear a nosebleed, made her wanna puke or faint.

so whenever we worked together, i took all her nosebleeds, she took all my eyeball patients. Worked out great, we were both happy.

I've known many a nurse who condenses down allllllllll the gross outs we all face,

down into one (1) gross out,

like me and my eyeball thing.

I know nurses who can't deal with sputum, (understandable) or puke, or even DENTURES!! For real, plain ol dentures send some nurses swooning.

I suspect it might be a form of a coping mechanism,

that maybe, by allowing ourselves to fully indulge in the one (1) gross out,

it might somehow help us deal with the other 99 things we forced ourselves to deal with without reaction.

...that's my theory, anyway! ha ha!!

uRNmyway, ASN, RN

1,080 Posts

Specializes in Med-Surg.
So at first I thought, wow, these people are all crazy I don't do anything like that, then i looked down at my air mattress. LMBO!!!

I tossed my mattress and insist on sleeping on an air mattress because of the constant exposure to bedbugs at my job. We even found a couple at work and put them in a specimen cup! UGH! Well they can't crawl very far and they live in mattresses or walls...

So I promptly threw away my old mattress and sleep on an air mattress in the middle of my room to insure I would NOT have the lovely experience of being attacked by bedbugs. They totally freak me out.

lol, I don't even tell anyone that cuz I think they'll think I'm crazy, like all of you guys! LOL

Wrong, wrong, and wrong. Bedbugs can crawl much farther than you think. They latch on to you and your clothes. They can also get on an airmattress the same way they could on anything else. And they do not live only on mattresses or walls. Carpets, toys, clothes, drawers, book linings, etc. That is why they are everywhere. Oh, and lots of people think they only go after people who have messy/dirty environments. Also false.

uRNmyway, ASN, RN

1,080 Posts

Specializes in Med-Surg.

As far as the excessive sanitizing, working as a nurse has changed nothing about my habits. I wash my hands if visibly dirty, or if I touch someone/something that was visibly dirty. I will wash after I leave a room in isolation, and sanitize between patients. I won't stop myself from eating at work, or eating with hospital cutlery. I don't obsessively clean my work station.

At home, same basic idea. If I use a cutting board for meat I will wash it right away with soap and hot water, but that's pretty much it.

For food/leftovers, I perform the sniff test. Maybe it comes from being a broke nursing student and having to stretch every dollar lol.

With my daughter, I do the same. She puts stuff in her mouth all the time (18 month old). She cuddles on my dog. She once sat IN the toilet. Like, in the actual toilet bowl. And she really only started getting sick when I brought her to daycare a few times like in November.

But with all this, we still are pretty healthy, although my immune system seems much better than my daughter's and fiance's. They recently got a pretty bad case of viral gastroenteritis. Sick as dogs for 4-5 days, fever, body aches, N/V. I had body aches and fever for 12 hours, slept it off, back to normal next morning. My fiance refers to it as my superhuman nurse immune system lol.

jetfuel

48 Posts

I've always been a bit of a germaphobe, even from childhood (when I became aware of "little nasties"). But I felt that, during my pre-reqs, that I had a far better sense of what was reasonable - how, when, and why.

What's most interesting was when I was most of the way through Microbiology, I said (and posted on facebook!): "...learned that all my 'silly' ideas about cleanliness, 'germs' and infection were true after all." I was right!

jetfuel

48 Posts

I salivate looking at my sons veins...

Boy...out of context, that would be a most disturbing statement.

Boy...out of context, that would be a most disturbing statement.

LMAO yes it would. BUT if you saw his neck you'd wanna do a million IVs there too! LMAO

uRNmyway, ASN, RN

1,080 Posts

Specializes in Med-Surg.

Lol, I got some weird looks at my mom's Christmas party this year for the vein thing too. My cousin has these HOSES you could stick with a 16G, eyes shut, no problem. I even took a picture lol.

monkeybug

716 Posts

Specializes in Public Health, L&D, NICU.
oh i kinda identify. I have a whole thing, about eyeballs.

for real, eyeballs, eyeball injuries, foreign objects in eyeballs,

even a really detailed STORY about an eyeball injury, can almost make me swoon.

I used to work with an OB who had the same issues about eyes. So one day one of the older nurses cooked up something with a patient and her family. When it was time to deliver she called him in and she had left the sheet over the patient. He pulled the sheet back, and they had placed a plastic googly eye one either side of her, um, perineum. The doctor recoiled and then everyone had a good laugh.

somenurse

470 Posts

I used to work with an OB who had the same issues about eyes. So one day one of the older nurses cooked up something with a patient and her family. When it was time to deliver she called him in and she had left the sheet over the patient. He pulled the sheet back, and they had placed a plastic googly eye one either side of her, um, perineum. The doctor recoiled and then everyone had a good laugh.

LOL!

oh, yeah!! I think many nurses DO have one (1) thing that they do allow themselves to be grossed out about,

and once that one thing becomes known to your coworkers (usually is)

we can become targets for pranks!

Pranks i have seen (and/or participated in)

Nurse who is creeped out by urine (i know, urine? of all the things? urine? but, yeah, she was)

Nurse2 comes into nurses station, with well-cleaned, never-used urinal off of the shelf, filled with apple juice. Says to other nurses in station, "wow, my patients urine smells so odd, wonder if i can send specimen to lab, or should i get the order first?"

and then, after everyone encourages nurse2 to get order, as that doc is a stickler, says, "But, wow, this urine smells kinda GOOD!" and drinks the apple juice, sending the urine-phobe nurse into spasms.

(i've also seen above prank, done with a chocolate candy bar...)

Another example

Coworker in ER vomits when EMTs bring in patient with actual maggots crawling in his wound. Yeah, she vomitted, into wastebasket. Of course, those same EMTs came back into ER later that day, with order of white rice, (which resembles maggots) and had much fun with sprinkling this rice here or there.

And yes, i've been both heavily teased with toy or candy eyeballs at halloween,

as well as protected, "no, stop, Jean can't take eyeball stories!"

ha!

somenurse

470 Posts

Wrong, wrong, and wrong. Bedbugs can crawl much farther than you think. They latch on to you and your clothes. They can also get on an airmattress the same way they could on anything else. And they do not live only on mattresses or walls. Carpets, toys, clothes, drawers, book linings, etc. That is why they are everywhere. Oh, and lots of people think they only go after people who have messy/dirty environments. Also false.

oh my...i don't know a lot about bedbugs, but, wow, this info creeps me right out, i had no idea....

oh no...

I'm not currently working in hospital setting, is this becoming a new concern for hospital staff, is bringing home bedbugs? Only in southern areas, or all over, is this a concern now for you all? Or just those in warmer climates?

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