What is your Achilles heel?

[cjdmomma]

Let me start by saying I am a last semester student. I have also been a tech at the hospital for 2 years.

Give me poo, vomit, anything... but please oh please not sputum....

I am desperately trying to get over my hatred of phlegm. Crazy right? Trach patients, I can't even.

Obviously, I am perfectly professional in the room, and care for these patients like any other, but seriously, I cannot be the only one, right?

Does anything gross you out, about the job, at this point?

[aTOMicTom]

...SLIMY YELLOW FUNGAL CRUD in fat folds.

You know the kind, morbidly obese patient and you're trying to figure out WHERE that smell is coming from and you lift a 40 pound slab of abdominal fat and find.....a village.

Okay, re-thinking this whole nursing thing...

(Kidding) but it reminds me of one of the funniest things I read on AllNurses.com; someone reported a student who dropped out of nursing school because they "didn't know they'd have to see old people naked"!

[aTOMicTom]

...squick.

Wow, thanks; I learned a word I'd never even seen before! (Sounds like I am going to need it, too!)

[h=1]Definition of squick in English [/h][h=3]verb[/h] [with object] informal

• cause immediate and thorough revulsion:was anyone else squicked by the potential adoptive parents?
  

[h=3]noun[/h] a person or thing that causes immediate and thorough revulsion.

[RNsRWe, ASN, RN]

.....re-thinking this whole nursing thing... (kidding)

... but it reminds me of one of the funniest things I read on AllNurses.com; someone reported a student who dropped out of nursing school because they "didn't know they'd have to see old people naked"!

ah, yes. I have found things embedded in and under fleshy parts that would make anyone "squick", lol...not urband legend, not myth, not a joke, but found an actual COOKIE under the pendulous breast of one of my more slender patients (not)! It wasn't quite identifiable as a cookie, wasn't sure what the heck it was (it was sodden and smooshed and smelled bad), but the patient herself said "oh, it's a vanilla Oreo". Ooohh, ok. Saving it for later?!? Didn't say a word, just tossed it into the basin......ick.

[Ikikaeru]

Omg, RNsrWE just reminded me of one of my colleagues. We were having a discussion similar to this on and she told me the worst thing she has had to deal with was a morbidly obese pt that never cleaned herself. As they were checking for skin breakdown between her abdominal folds they found ulcerations with maggots crawling around. She said it wasn't just a couple either but tons of them,that there might just set me off.

[RNsRWe, ASN, RN]

maggots, yep they can make you toss your lunch. Had a homeless man admitted to my floor, the ER sent him up without so much as taking off his jacket/shoes; dirt was actually flaking off of him onto the stretcher (and of course, the bed when transferred). The poor PCT who got the job of removing his boots was a real trooper....we heard about the maggots and foot funk that would kill a moose.

[NickiLaughs, ADN, BSN, RN]

Just the super nasty phlegm and that noise they will make sometimes with it, sorta like hocking a loogey...ugh. I threw up into my popcorn during titantic when Leonardo Dicaprio was teaching Kate Winslet how to spit..... Obviously I've gotten better at handling it. But definitely still my least favorite....

[cjdmomma]

You guys made me feel so much better! One of very first experiences I had with a trach was what did me in. I was in a room helping the nurse with something else, and I happened to look at him and there was a bunch of green globs all over his gown, and he just wiped it up with a kleenex. Makes my stomach turn just thinking about it. I had to turn around really fast so the pt wouldn't see me gagging.

After I left the room, I cried because I felt so bad for the way I acted. He has to live like that, and I am the one gagging in the room, that's not right. you know?

It still isn't right, but thanks for helping me to know that I am not alone.

[newrnltc]

I have 2 achilles heel. Eyeballs and diseased va jay jays (google images of vulvar cancer and vulvular lichen sclerosus!). The first time I saw these cases was at an industry symposium. In the advanced stages, all the structural landmarks were gone, you can't see anything besides a gaping, oozing ulcerated mess. The male doc sitting next to me almost fell off his chair in horror and every lady in the room crossed their legs and grimaced.

[danceyrun]

Eyes and nasty mouths

[NurseDirtyBird]

I've been retching through this whole thread, but I'll add mine. Anything having to do with mouths. This is why I'm a nurse and not a dental hygienist. Sputum (especially), vomit, chewed food, dentures...ick. I can't even help with oral care. Oh god, and when the little old ladies are still chewing on something HOURS after a meal, I almost lose it.

[SunshineDaisy, ASN, RN]

I am seriously gagging here*L* Trac suctioning gets me every time!

[WanderingSagehen]

I like all the gross stuff but don't understand nurses who can't stomach this stuff. Isn't this why we became nurses to help our patient's bodily functions not endanger them..... the grosser the better, that's why I am at the bedside.