What is the grossest thing you have encountered in clinicals?

Nursing Students General Students

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Thought this would be an interesting thread to start to give new students the "harsh reality" :rotfl: of what to expect as we enter our first semester.

Specializes in 5 yrs OR, ASU Pre-Op 2 yr. ER.

Projectile vomiting with a distance of 7 ft from the pt.

Abdominal abscess so rank, it reeked up the entire floor, and i had to put Vapo-Rub under my nose in order to combat the smell-induced retching.

3 toes that fell off when i pulled the sheet back.

I've got more, but i'll think of them later.

Specializes in Emergency & Trauma/Adult ICU.
Projectile vomiting with a distance of 7 ft from the pt.

7 feet?? Wow - impressive. :eek: I've also encountered a gangrenous toe that probably would have fallen off if I'd handled it very much. That, combined with terrible circulation in the entire leg, resulted in a BKA for the pt.

Umm, what exactly do you do when something like toes falling off happens? I mean, do you say oops, scoop them up and toss 'em in the trash or what? I wouldn't even know how to react in a situation like that.:chuckle

Specializes in 5 yrs OR, ASU Pre-Op 2 yr. ER.

I covered the pt. back up and went to the charge nurse.

Specializes in ICU, PICC Nurse, Nursing Supervisor.

I can eat lunch and watch vomiting and toes falling off and that dont bother me. Ive got a stomach of steel and once ate a kitkat while watching a autopsy. However when I was in nursing school a several years back I was the lucky one who encountered the lightning fast flesh eating bacteria. It was my patient for the day ,as I was a nursing student. It was one of the first reported cases in my county. There is something about skin rotting off before your eyes that didnt set well with me. However I have survived, with no nightmeres I might add.:smokin:

Thought this would be an interesting thread to start to give new students the "harsh reality" :rotfl: of what to expect as we enter our first semester.
Specializes in Adult Med-Surg, Rehab, and Ambulatory Care.

C dif :uhoh21:

It was the middle of July and I was doing a two week practicum. I assisted in doing the dressing change on a huge stage 3 going on 4 decubitus. It was red, green, black, and yellow. The patient's bathroom window was open and the strong industrial smell from a nearby plant wofted into the room, mixing with the odor of this poor patient's wound ... it was overwhelming to say the least.

a patient with a HORRIBLE UTI. Had to cath the patient and get UA. It hardly looked like urine, was full of sediment that covered about 1/4 of an inch of the UA container.

Specializes in Inpatient Acute Rehab.

This didn't happen in clinicals, but in a rehab unit that I worked on several years back.

We had an older woman who was German, spoke only German, and wanted desperatly to go back to Germany. Her son had brought her to Ohio and would not take her back. We had this woman on suicide precautions because she was so desperate to not be anywhere but Germany. Someone, we think her son, got the bright idea to give her her knitting supplies, which have... knitting needles!!! I just came on duty, was told she was good. I went to check her, and there she lay, both wrists butchered from the knitting needles. The amount of blood was horrendous. it was everywhere in the room. There was not a spot anywhere in the room that did not have blood on it.

The doc said that she had less than a pint left in her. Of course she died. The son was eventually charged with giving her a "weapon", and of course the facility was fined BIG time, the nurse that gave the report that the patient was good lost her license for failure to assess the client, and new rules were put in policy about visitors could not take anything into the suicidal patient rooms.

It was tragic.

This didn't happen in clinicals, but in a rehab unit that I worked on several years back.

We had an older woman who was German, spoke only German, and wanted desperatly to go back to Germany. Her son had brought her to Ohio and would not take her back. We had this woman on suicide precautions because she was so desperate to not be anywhere but Germany. Someone, we think her son, got the bright idea to give her her knitting supplies, which have... knitting needles!!! I just came on duty, was told she was good. I went to check her, and there she lay, both wrists butchered from the knitting needles. The amount of blood was horrendous. it was everywhere in the room. There was not a spot anywhere in the room that did not have blood on it.

The doc said that she had less than a pint left in her. Of course she died. The son was eventually charged with giving her a "weapon", and of course the facility was fined BIG time, the nurse that gave the report that the patient was good lost her license for failure to assess the client, and new rules were put in policy about visitors could not take anything into the suicidal patient rooms.

It was tragic.

Oh, what a sad, sad story. I'm sorry you had to experience such a horrific event.

I can eat lunch and watch vomiting and toes falling off and that dont bother me. Ive got a stomach of steel and once ate a kitkat while watching a autopsy. However when I was in nursing school a several years back I was the lucky one who encountered the lightning fast flesh eating bacteria. It was my patient for the day ,as I was a nursing student. It was one of the first reported cases in my county. There is something about skin rotting off before your eyes that didnt set well with me. However I have survived, with no nightmeres I might add.:smokin:

I can eat lunch and watch vomiting and toes falling off and that dont bother me. Ive got a stomach of steel and once ate a kitkat while watching a autopsy.:rotfl:

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