Blood, Guts & Bodily Fluids?

Nienna Celebrindal · Jan 30, 2015

No one thing really bothers, occasionally something will make my stomach turn but its pretty uncommon.

When I was in nursing school I was watching a knee replacement in the OR and my stomach growled so loudly. The surgeon actually stopped and asked who that was? I was mortified and said it was me and he laughed and replied, "If you are still hungry during this you are going to make a great nurse."

JWG223 · Jan 31, 2015

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.

Actually, yeah. I first knew I had a problem with it when I shot my first rabbit when I was about 16. I saw that blood and thought "eeehhh..." I mean, I wasn't a dumb kid. I knew blood was in the rabbit, under pressure, and that when it was no-longer under pressure, it would be on the ground and I could then pick the rabbit up and take it home, but SEEING IT was different that KNOWING it. By the third rabbit, I was fine.

FFWD about a decade, and I knew in the surgical suite that an incision would indeed produce blood. Watching it, though, and SEEING IT was different. I felt woozy. I almost walked out (clinical observation rotation in OR). But I remembered the rabbit all those years ago, and did not.

The next surgery I saw was a lap procedure. Still a bit woozy. But much better!

Then was a CABGX4. I was actually pretty solid!

It seems like 3 is my number. My first night working in ICU, I have a patient violently vomiting blood from ruptured esophageal varracies, and it didn't bother me a bit other than trying to calm the patient and fix what I could of the problem.

So, yes, blood and guts as you put it has always made me a bit light the first time I encounter them in a certain setting, but by about the 3rd experience I find that I adjust.

Human beings are remarkably adaptable. Don't let a fear of blood/guts deter you from something!

boynursebill · Feb 3, 2015

I can wipe a butt with one hand and eat chocolate pudding with the other... Help set a broken bone and go eat some fried chicken. Never really get grossed out by much anymore. 5 years as Cna, then er tech, then ICU nurse, now er nurse, not much phases me anymore. I know some who still get grossed out by the silliest thing, like dentures, or the sound of people hacking up sputum.