Worst nursing proceedure ever....

LoriAnnRN · Jan 19, 2003

Trach care ranks up there pretty high with me too BUT, I really hate to do ostomy care on ileostomy patients. The ileum is especially runny and super-stinky. The odor seems to cling to my hair and clothes, you know, like the smell of decomposition (I heard that on CSI).

K O'Malley · Jan 19, 2003

Hey, trach care is a piece of cake. Mucous? No problem. Let me have it all day long. But please don't make me empty the bedpan of a GI bleed. The smell permeates the whole unit, gets on the elevator and goes downstairs.

ShandyLynnRN, BSN, RN · Jan 19, 2003

I would have to say from an OB perspective, doing a vag exam on a "hygenically challenged" patient. It's so hard not to make a face! Next would probably be any kind of ostomy care. Never had to deal with a GI bleed, but have smelled them, and I don't care if I never have to deal with one of those!

Sally_ICURN · Jan 19, 2003

The absolute worst thing I've seen had to deal with is changing a packed wet-dry dressing on a woman who had a femoral central line that became outrageously infected. I'll never ever, ever, ever forget it. The wound was so deep into her pelvis that you could see bone, ligments, and tendons and it invaded into her lady partsl space and part of her abdomen. This poor woman died from massive infection. I have been involved in many autopsies, they paled in comparison. I don't know how stoma/wound nurses do it day in and day out!

GI bleed is definitely gross too.

simao pt · Jan 19, 2003

Actually, i hate some patients' spitting. It really annoys me the one's that spit everywhere, on the sheets, on the floor, on themselves, on us!!! I really dislike when they're "calling" the spittle while talking to me.

Another thing i think is particularly disgusting is doing an enema, especially preparing an older patient's colon ready for surgery. It can get very dirty.

By the way, i can't help sharing one of the worst smells my nose ever experienced and that almost made my stomache react (and that's NOT very common): a PATIENTS' FEET!!!!!!! That's right, i had a patient whose feet smelled so bad (after being cleaned, well cleaned, even by us!!!!!!) that whenever i entered the enfermary where he was in i never breathed in and out, just out and out!!!

deespoohbear · Jan 19, 2003

Trach care is pretty nasty....I don't care too much for suctioning either....

I am the queen of GI bleeds!! I seem to be a magnet for them....I have literally been standing in blood up to my ankles from a GI bleed....

I don't like messing with ostomies either any sort: colostomy, ileostomy.....yuck....

ernurse728, LPN · Jan 19, 2003

DISIMPACTIONS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!I hate them. I don't mind mucous..I actually kind of like to suction. But I hate all ostomies and I hate poop!!!

kids · Jan 19, 2003

I don't mind poop, pus, puke, blood, mucus, colostomies, ileostomies, huge gaping gag a maggot wounds, projectile trach boogers, necrotising fascitis or GI bleeders spewing from either end...but please, for the love of all that is pure and good in this world, I beg you PLEASE do not make me do anything that involves eyeballs or eye sockets.

ShandyLynnRN, BSN, RN · Jan 19, 2003

Oh, and I forgot dentures... I CAN'T STAND to touch, handle, or even SEE someones nasty dentures!!! GAG me! If they are clean, then no biggie, but when I see the ones that haven't been cleaned in days with food all caked on them, or even the "spit stringies" coming from them as they are removed, oh, .... just, GAG!

Bonnie Rabbit · Jan 19, 2003

Boy-oh-boy... What am I getting myself into?

**canoehead, BSN, RN** · Jan 19, 2003

We had a guy with hygiene issues that had mold growing on his back and feces caked into his skin, including under his nails which were so long they were curled under his toes. He was bathed 3-4 times when I finally saw him and still had a stringy brown/green mucus gob with hair in his belly button, and I HAD to get it out of there. That is the very grossest thing I've ever seen.