Area of hospital with minimal vomit...

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Hi. I'm currently on the waitlist for nursing school and I've wanted to be a nurse my whole life...but I have emetophobia and am quite afraid of vomit! I'm sure I could suck it up and deal with it, but I'm just wondering if there are any areas in the hospital that have minimal vomit exposure?

Specializes in med/surg tele, postpartum, mother baby.

I think it's safe to say every area of nursing deals with vomit :/ at least every area that has direct patient care

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i have one piece of advise: don't mention this to your clinical instructor.

they may think that you are asking for an easy assignment and will find someone who is a veritable geiser of vomit to be your clinical assignment.

the reality is that in nursing we are forced to get upclose and personal with all kinds of yuckiness and clinical instructors make it their mission to make sure we get our gloved hands dirty with poop and new expensive nursing shoes wet with puke.

i had a few really yucky situations in clinicals but i was so intrigued by what i was learning it really didn't really bother me as much as i thought it would.

best of luck to you.

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i deal with nausea on a daily basis and i've found that sucking on a ginger chew from trader joe's does the trick. even drinking ginger tea helps with nausea. keep a couple ginger chews on hand and some vick's vaporub to put under your nose.

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Specializes in Nurse Leader specializing in Labor & Delivery.
I don't know about every patient's case, but I know that I did some vomitting while laboring with my children, especially during the transition phase. The thing that may be bad for the OP is that in a lot of hospitals (including the one in my city) is that the patients have an IV and a fetal monitor strapped around them. That means that the patient is going to try to vomit in that tiny, bean-shaped emesis pan that the hospitals provides. No one I know of vomits that little during labor. I would suggest L & D if it is in a hospital that allows women to move around during labor (that would only influence where the vomitting would occur, not stop it from happening all together), but that is not an option at a lot of hospitals. At a hospital where it is encouraged, there is more chance that the vomit would end up in the toilet or a trash can where there would be a minimal amount of clean up. But if the OP is at a hospital like mine, most likely the vomit is going to occur in the bed or even the floor (as would all other bodily functions, much to the patient's chargrin).

I don't think the poster you quoted was suggesting L&D, she was saying that L&D is not a prerequisite to working in the NICU. I agree - L&D and NICU are two completely different breeds of nurses, and it's rare to find a nurse that is cross-trained to both areas.

As an L&D nurse, I would say that L&D is NOT a good place to work if you don't like vomit. LOTS of vomit in L&D. Good lord, is there lots of vomit.

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Specializes in Hospital Education Coordinator.

Laundry?

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That's like saying you want to be a chef but you're afraid of fire.

or a roofer with an aversion to height

Or being a chip afraid of dip

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Specializes in Rehab, critical care.

definitely NOT oncology. Umm...every patient vomits at one time or another. However, I wouldn't say it's an everyday thing in my ICU. I also make sure I get my patients their zofran before it gets to that point. Is it really a fear of vomit as you describe? Or other people's vomit just makes you gag?

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Ortho patients vomit frequently after PACU delivers them. This may surprise you, but have you considered the GI lab? People are generally prepped, and the GI doc suctions most secretions. Though you'd most like have to recover them in the PACU where almost every other patient is having emesis. Also, the emergencies can be quite nasty/bloody. Sorry. Never Mind!

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Specializes in geriatrics.

I worked an ortho floor and PACU as a student. Stay away from these areas if you can't handle vomit. People vomit daily on ortho floors.

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You get used to it. When I was in LPN school and we were in clinic dealing with surical wounds,learning trach care,watching boils be drained,I threw up myself more than once. But the more I got used to it,the easier it got. With sores that have rotten or gangrenous flesh,I will still sometimes get sick,but not often.

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Specializes in Nurse Leader specializing in Labor & Delivery.

ZOMBIE THREAD

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It is a curious thing when there are new, perfectly conversational replies to someone who said something 5, 6, 8, 10 YEARS ago.

:)

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