Area of hospital with minimal vomit...

MN-Nurse, ASN, RN · Jan 15, 2012

I'd advise sucking it up.

I actually share your aversion. Of all the messy stuff we deal with, vomit is the only one that ever bothered me.

Now I work on a floor where just about everybody is either vomiting or close to it.

You learn to deal with it. Also, in this market you often just don't get to choose which fluids you get to deal with.

Now, if you objected to vomit on religious grounds, here on allnurses you would find no end of support and rationalization why you shouldn't have to touch it! (Just kidding everyone) (kinda.)

Do-over, ASN, RN · Jan 15, 2012

I agree with the comment that vomiting comes in waves on my unit (so do chest tubes, for some reason). It seems I can go weeks without a puker (or at least they already have NGs), and then one night half the unit is throwing up...

alxndria.mrqtt · Jan 15, 2012

Thanks for all your help... I'm almost positive after some exposure I'll be pretty okay with the pukers. Lol. I've been trying to get some exposure as a CNA before I start nursing school, but no one will hire without experience! I'll get some puke exposure soon.

Nascar nurse- fantastic idea!!! Haha!

Backtoyou2011 · Jan 15, 2012

I work in the NICU, and i think if your aversion to vomit is severe, maybe it's not a good idea as every feeding with kids with ogs or ngs, we check what theirs aspirate looks like and sometimes if they aren't tolerating their food it can get really icky.As for needing a BSN to work in the NICU, it all depends on where you work. Our unit is a level three NICU, and almost half of my co workers are associate degree nurses, but many of them have had prior nursing experience before coming to the nicu.

oaktown2 · Jan 15, 2012

I have a pretty sensitive gag reflex and worried about how I would be when I started clinicals. I found that I was more focused on the task, ie cleaning up, that I didn't think about what I was cleaning up. Obviously as I get more experience this may change and I may need to find ways of dealing with it, but I'll deal with that when it happens. But I doubt it will be as bad as you expect!

DixieRedHead, ASN, RN · Jan 15, 2012

Honey, you will get over it. In my first clinical a tube feeding was vomited and made a roll around the man's neck. My fellow students cleaned him up while I filled the toilet. Now I just throw a towel on it, get up the worst, get another towel, get up the next worse and give a bath.

Been there,done that, ASN, RN · Jan 15, 2012

Hahaha! "suck it up".

Could be.. Freudian there.

In all honesty , you will be required to work in a med-surg area during your first 1-2 years of nursing employment.

If you truly have a phobia regarding vomit... you will need to work through that before you consider nursing as your profession.

We all have "something' we think we cant handle.. stool... sputum.. etc..

Please deal with it before you must confront it.

jnetrn · Jan 16, 2012

I would guess that day surgery might be a good place to avoid vomit. The patients get their I.V.'s and presurgery checklist done but I don't think they would vomit much until after surgery. I don't know first hand because I've never worked in that department except briefly during nursing school. I wouldn't choose the E.R. if you hate vomit because the patients throw up all the time there. Everyday there is someone vomiting. I hate vomit, poop, and sputum but I just get through it. As a nurse I don't give myself the option to get grossed out. I figure the faster I clean it up and fix the patient the less I have to deal with it. Who really likes nasty stuff anyway? I was creeped out by amputations too but got over that fear too. Now I work E.R. and have yet to be creeped out. You should pick somewhere with the most vomit and get over your fear.

MeldogRN · Jan 16, 2012

I don't have any sage advice, but this thread reminded me of a story a dear friend told me. It was early in her nursng career and she just started working as a heme/onc nurse. In the middle of the night she answered a call bell, walking in her patients room to find him standing there, hunched over, vomiting on the floor. My friend went to comfort her patient and rub his back, but when he sarted heaving again, so did she! When they were both finished, they were laughing hysterically!

tntrn, ASN, RN · Jan 16, 2012

Absolutey no requirement to work Labor and Delivery before NICU. At least not where I work.

futuresrna, RN · Jan 16, 2012

Good luck finding an area that has little or no vomit. I mean that sincerely. I have worked L&D, Telemetry, every surgical floor you can imagine, MICU, SICU, CVICU, CCU, Trauma ICU, and PACU. Haven't found an area yet w/o an occassional vomiting episode. I will tell you that I have an aversion to vomit myself. I've been a nurse for 15+ years and just "suck-it-up". Really, it's not as bad as it seems. Most of the patients that I have dealt with who vomit are usually vomiting up gastric fluids minus all the food and stuff. It's usually a patient that is post-op and has been NPO or a patient with a bowel obstruction and hasn't eatin in a good while. Gastric fluids really don't have a strong odor. Is it the smell that bothers you? If so, I think you will be fine. You are not the only one who has an issue with this. I would be more worried about gangrnous wounds and poop. Put a lower GI bleed up to a vomiting person, and I'll take the vomit any day.

Bortaz, MSN, RN · Jan 16, 2012

In all honesty , you will be required to work in a med-surg area during your first 1-2 years of nursing employment.

What choo talkin' bout, Willis?