Keeping my cool during suction

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I truly believe in mind over matter. This has helped me actually want to start IV's and give injections. I approach clinicals with an open mind, asking to help clean up 'yucky' things, just to desensitize myself to it. I eat while reading my chapter on defecation and ostomy care, pictures and all.

My problem is this; I can't handle suctioning of anything respiratory in nature. I knew it would be yucky but I convinced myself that I could handle it, just like I have convinced myself of everything else. I had the opportunity to suction someone recently, I was glad to be able to do it, to get over it.

Just the sound of the secretions being suctioned made my stomach lurch. I could feel it doing somersaults. I have a cast iron stomach so this sensation was new to me. I felt really sick. The nurse sensed my apprehension and took over. I watched the secretions go through the tube into the suction cannister and I had to leave the room. Fortunately the nurse is an alumunus of my school so she is protective of us. When she was done she told me that suction bothered her the most at first too.

Will this sensation ever pass?

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Yes eventually you adapt. We have one nurse that will offer to take care of every code brown as long as we do all the suction. It bothers her so much that when we did the intake interview she said Iwill do anything except suctioning trachs. I laughed and said as long as you are not allergic to poop.

She has done great.

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Everyone has their bugaboo. I took a semester off to have my son so my friend ended up graduating before me and warned me about the last semester with trach care, all the string mucus bubbling out and the smell, she said she gagged every day she had a trach patient. Well, when I started the semester I found myself wondering what the hell she was talking about. Certainly not any grosser than an infected wound or bile or NG tube drainage.

I had another friend who did great till she went to the nurse clinic and did ear lavage. Picking big waxy ear chunks out of old men's hairy ears just finished her off for the day - she had to go home!

Melissa

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Specializes in NICU.

I just concentrate on the patient and put myself into his/her shoes. The more secretions I find, the thicker and nastier they are - that's how much better the patient is going to breathe now that I've cleared the airway. I just see all that stuff in the suction catheter or see it being cleared from a trach - and I breathe a sigh of relief because I know if I was that patient, I'd be so thankful that I could breathe again. Yeah, suctioning stinks for both the patient and the nurse - but in the end, it's all about securing an airway.

Makes it feel much more important and much less "icky" when I think about it like that.

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Specializes in LTC, sub-acute, urology, gastro.

Concentrate on clearing your patient's airway & your technique instead of the mucous - thinking about it grosses me out but when I'm actually suctioning someone it doesn't really bother me. I agree with the above poster about ear wax though :barf02: I can handle any other gross or smelly mess except ear wax.

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Specializes in telemetry, cardiopulmonary stepdown, LTC. Hospice.
Concentrate on clearing your patient's airway & your technique instead of the mucous - thinking about it grosses me out but when I'm actually suctioning someone it doesn't really bother me. I agree with the above poster about ear wax though :barf02: I can handle any other gross or smelly mess except ear wax.

You know, I have been wondering how I will handle these situations. I have no idea. I know that with my own children, it makes me ill sometimes but I just tighten my stomach and clean. It's got to be way different when it's someone not related to me, and I worry about it. Hearing that other nurses have their gross out moments gives me confidence, but I'd be afraid to admit that there was something that made me sick, because I would be worried the others would see it as a weakness and feel it made me less valuable as a nurse. I think snot is grossest. With poop, (with my kids, you understand, I am not in nursing school just yet) I stop breathing through my nose and clean and get over it. But with suctioning I wondered just how strong my stomach would stay. I'm going to try as hard as I can to think about how much better the person will feel and not focus on the gross part....I sure hope I can do this!!!!

Cara

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