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?

[NightNerd, MSN, RN]

Anything with feet. Nails, crud between the toes, distortedness, etc. freaks me out. I will not react in front of the patient of course, but I will come out of that room silently thanking the powers that be for my feet and the condition they are in!

And just general lack of hygiene. Stuff hiding in fat folds, private parts that clearly haven't seen soap in a good chunka time, B.O. - I'm not a fan.

Anything else I can handle. Including sputum. I feel super-badass now.

[ComeTogether, LPN]

The smell of a really really rank patient. One who hasn't had a bath in god only knows how long. Sometimes that gets to me....I just want to get them in the shower and scrub away, and I usually do. Also, BUGS of any kind. Scabies, lice, maggots (ok never ran across maggots yet but I hear it can happen) send me running for the hills *shudder* I itch like crazy for the rest of the shift and even after I've taken a steaming hot shower and washed 5 times, LOL. I just don't do bugs. If i even see a rash that may look like scabies I get the heebie jeebies. I blame it on my brother for putting the ugliest, nastiest bugs he could find in my bed. *blah*

[Beautiful Mind RN]

I just got through my first semester of my nursing core classes and my first round of clinicals was at a long term care facility. I have been a pharmacy tech for 4 years at a hospital and I thought I had seen it all when doing rounds on all the floors...I WAS WRONG.

During my first round of clinicals, the second week in, I got up close and personal with c-dif diarrhea(as in all over my scrubs, hair...everywhere. I felt like I was in the front row at Sea World with Shamu). Never will I forget that distinct smell or the green/grayish hue... that I went home with.

Let's just say, that was the longest and hottest shower I ever took. Not to mention, I had to strip myself in my garage so I could throw the clothes immediately into the washer.

[Beautiful Mind RN]

I will proudly say though, I am tough when it comes to everything else mentioned in this thread so far.

Blood, guts, fungal infections, BO, maggots, even leeches(I dispense them in my pharmacy, so I am use to them)....BRING IT ON!

C-dif...not-so-much.

[uRNmyway, ASN, RN]

Lol I wonder what it says about me that I got through this whole thread with no reaction.

I agree with a recent pp...feet...Oh Lord...especially the old diabetic feet. Or recently have treated quads with hep c. Don't know what it was about their combination of meds that got their nails so thick, yellow and flaky but ugh. So disgusted the whole time. I had to try to trim them and they kept snapping off in my direction.

And I'm not real fond of trach junk either. Won't lose my lunch over it but definitely grit my teeth a little...

[sissiesmama, ASN, RN]

What gets me is someone with n/v when they are gagging. I can handle emesis - even if it's a SBO and smells poopy. Seeing the look on their face, cheeks like a chipmunk - makes me want to gag with them.

Anne, RNC

[DoeRN]

Pseudomonas smell and I hate to do it but I have to wear a mask when I come across this. At first I didn't want to offend the patient. But I'm sure me barfing would be more offensive than a mask.

I once found onion rings under a fat fold once. So any type of rotting food where it shouldn't be.

Foot maggots and yes there was a worm too. I can't handle the bugs. I backed out of the room very calmly when I cut of the sock. And I almost fainted in the hallway. I had to sit down in a wheelchair super fast. I still shutter when I think about it and that was almost 10 years ago when I was a PCT.

Oh and I carry Mentholatum in my bag too.

Sent from my iPhone using allnurses.com

[pookyp, LPN]

OMG you guys are HILARIOUS!!! I once watched a patient drink the VOMIT she had vomited into a cup!!! By the time I processed what I was watching vomit was gone! Poof! Back to where it came from! I retched all the way back to the nurses station. [/quote']

Get the HECK outta here!!!!! *faints*

[HAYNURSE]

Dentures that have food on them and as the patient takes them out there is this long string of food that follows. ECK!!

[catebsn25]

mine is kind of strange but I can't handle when things are wrong with fingernails or toenails... broken, fungus, splinters... I lose it

[sissiesmama, ASN, RN]

Get the HECK outta here!!!!! *faints*

Oh - that would kill me!! I could NOT handle that!!