Blood, Guts & Bodily Fluids?

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Do you have any issues with any of this when you first became a nurse and then eventually became desensitized?

Most things do not bother me but there are a few things that do get to me such as REAL funky odors and vomit.

Specializes in Med-Surg, Transplant.

I've always had a pretty strong stomach even before deciding to be a nurse. However, by now I've become immune to grossness to an almost obscene degree...lol. Blood, urine, a large majority of poop, vomit and even teach secretions barely phase me. Realllllly bad untreated c. diff odor still throws me for a minute and I have realized that poop with multiple undigested food pieces is the worst!!!

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Specializes in kids.

I can deal with just about anything I am working with, but if someone nearby is being suctionedj....GAGGERS!!!!!!

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Specializes in Geriatrics, Dialysis.

Vomit while the person is vomiting doesn't bother me, but the smell and feel of cleaning it up afterwards...major yuck! It even bothers me some if it's my dog leaving a gift on the floor, especially if it's still warm!

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Specializes in CCU, SICU, CVSICU, Precepting & Teaching.
Do you have any issues with any of this when you first became a nurse and then eventually became desensitized?

Most things do not bother me but there are a few things that do get to me such as REAL funky odors and vomit.

You get more used to it with experience.

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Nothing bothered me much except for PHLEGM. Ugh.

The funny thing was, once I took care of a trach patient with copious secretions. His misery was so bad that suctioning him made me feel like a frickin angel of mercy. His phlegm stopped bothering me, it was SATISFYING to get all that yuk out of him and see and hear his breathing ease.

Now any XXXXXL amount of any body fluid, except perhaps urine, is pretty darn gross. We had a hospice patient brought in last minute by his panicking wife, and he expired peacefully two hours after admission. His wife thanked us and we sat with her until their son came to take her home. When preparing the body for the morgue, he was rolled to his side and basically exsanguinated post-mortem, so that there was a flood of liquid blood on the bed, and across the floor. THAT was very difficult to cope with, much less clean up. We were all feeling heave-y at the thick smell and sight of all that blood.

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Specializes in Cardiac/Telemetry.

I recently took care of a guy who was in for a GI bleed and needed NT suctioning q4h. The combination of the GI bleed smell plus the sound effect of the suctioning made for one longggg shift. A little bit of vicks on your top lip beneath your nose goes a LONG way!!

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I'm in nursing school but I'm also a tech.

I don't mind the actual vomit but the sound of people vomiting makes me cringe! 😷

Oh and pseudomonas... Jesus take the wheel!

Sent from my iPhone using allnurses

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Specializes in Psychiatric Nursing.

I have this thing with earwax...kind of a strange fascination with the stuff...

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Having a child with encopresis prepared me for any smelly, nasty body fluids I might encounter. I'll be the first person to drain a huge, smelly cyst lol.

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Specializes in ER/Trauma, ICU, NICU, L&D.

i can handle A LOT of different things and for awhile i was called the "pus" queen because it seemed that all of my patients had infections that needed an i&d....lol BUT if a patient is puking, that includes my kids and friends, then i am a sympathetic puker as well and also burn patients get to me

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I've been a CCMA for 15 months, working with seniors and some hospice/palliative care. I can get past most of the bodily functions, but have a weak gag reflex when it comes to B/O and mucous sounds (that "wet squish"). I have to excuse myself to regain control...

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see? @Farawyn..That's the one I mean..heaving now :barf02:

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