I am hoping to start the nursing program soon, and of course I am nervous about how difficult that it will be. Unfortunately, I am also nervous about getting sick. Vomit, blood and all that good stuff don't usually gross me out, but I'm afraid my nerves combined with it may do me in. Does anyone ever get sick during nursing school? Is it something that you've seen others overcome?
I am praying that I won't have this problem. If I were easily grossed out, this obviously isn't the field for me, but I'm worried that in the beginning of being in this type of environment may do it. I just don't want to be the only idiot that this happens to lol.
My only episode during clinicals was on OR day. I actually wasn't grossed out, but I was 10 wks pregnant, probably dehydrated, and wearing a 50-lb lead apron during a pacemaker implantation. I got hot, dizzy, and weak. Of course they all just thought I was a newbie reacting to the incisions.
I have a strong stomach, but have also developed my poker face for when my stomach wants to betray me.
When I had my OR rotations I had a really tough time. Blood, guys, poop, pee.... no problem! Traumatic injuries, deformities, bones through flesh, bring it on (I think it doesn't phase me because it is so surreal).
What DID bother me was wearing that damn mask! Despite it being like 60 degrees in there (pretty much everyone wear layers to keep warm), I became diaphoretic, pale, and nearly syncopized a few times. I think it was hyperventilation from rebreathing my own air. That plus standing completely still and upright with little moving around. I tried my best to move my legs to keep blood flowing but no avail. I actually had to leave the room a couple times and at one point had to sit in the hall outside one of the OR bays because I started getting tunnel vision. A passing RN brought me in the break room to give me crackers and juice. I was so embarrassed to think the docs, RNs, and techs would think I was just squeamish about blood, when really it was just that damn mask and lack of movement!
So OR is not for me. In the ER all I do is run around so I'm a happy camper :)
Although one time I had a critical patient intubated patient with an SBO and while I was turning her I said, "what's that god awful smell... and UM why is my leg wet!?" I look down and the NG tube had become unclamped and gastric fluids which contained fecal matter was pouring on my leg. The smell was awful and I had to carry it on my leg until I could get a change of scrubs. I swear I smelled it on my skin for weeks. Definitely gag-worthy.
i can only remember getting woozy twice in nursing school - and both were because breakfast was not a priority for me that morning. Coffee is not breakfast. Food is breakfast.
You will get used to all the gross things you never thought you wouldn't be able to do - though the others are right - we're all entitled to have our one thing that make us think "ewwwwww" (mine is sputum...blergh)
On the related note - I got crazy sick with a nasty sinus infection in nursing school that lasted weeks, but since becoming a nurse and being exposed to frequent challenges and fun for my immune system, i rarely do get sick now.
Two things really got me during nursing school: watching a C-section during maternity nursing, and wound care. I'm not talking about small boo-boos or even large-ish surgical incisions. I'm talking about hip-to-ankle wounds that need daily debridement. I spent my last two semesters of clinicals at our local LTACH and the wound team nurses got to know me as "that student that passes out during dressing changes."
Fast-forward to 6 months after finishing orientation on a medical intermediate care unit, and I cringed the day I got report on a patient with a gangrenous toe needing q shift dressing changes. Guess what? I survived that. I still think wounds like the ones I encountered at LTACH would probably have me running for the door, but slowly I'm getting there!
I found that I've got a stronger stomach since becoming a mom than I did before. When I flossed a boogie out of my then-3-year-old's teeth, that was about the worst; nothing really bothered me since then. I was surprised during clinicals that I was fine turning, changing, and bathing pts in the LTC, but assisting in feeding the pt with Parkinson's with his nose running the entire time (yes, I wiped it but it kept a-gushing) made me gag. I turned so pt couldn't see me gag and tried to picture something else. I watched several c-sections from start to finish (one L&D nurse said she couldn't watch the first cut, another one said she couldn't watch the stitching inside), but I almost went down when the lady partsl birth was getting the epidural. The CRNA used the local, then inserted the catheter and left it dangling out of the back to grab the next tool. That sight, the needle/cath hanging from pt's back, made me queasy. My preceptor told me to leave the room. I was embarrassed but everybody was understanding. My hubby almost passed out when I was getting my epidural just from looking at the tray! We all have our thing that gets us, just try to think about something else and don't let the pt see you gag. You'll be fine!
LOL yeah having kids definitely gave me a stronger stomach, but the visual that I got of you flossing your 3 year old's teeth was definitely gag worthy. Usually it is only my own blood that bothers me and I can't watch it being drawn for some reason. But when I was pregnant with my fourth daughter, I had GD and had to give myself insulin injections and that helped me get over most of my apprehension about it.
Not that it is really related, but we raise Labs and I have been involved in my fair share of births. Not that I am comparing them to human births, but watching the momma eat the bag off the babies and chew the cord then eat the placenta and then follow that up with eating their poop and pee for the next 4 weeks or so; that usually gets to most people, but I have no problems with it. Although I do praise the Good Lord above that humans don't do that when they give birth lol. Yuck!!
That said, I do have classmates that were EXTREMELY nervous in clinicals. A friend of mine confessed to me recently (in our final semester now) that she would cry on the way to clinicals every day because of the anxiety it caused her.
This is why I HIGHLY encourage getting a job as a CNA or something like that before starting school, or while in school. Getting over the initial "weirdness" of touching patients and being that intimate with them can really slow you down and hang you up. It is only once you have passed that that you can really delve into their care and feel competent enough to do so well.
I cried the night before many clinicals! I could almost never sleep before them, often not even feeling tired/falling asleep til 3am before a 7am clinical. Funny enough, now that I am an RN and on preceptorship I still have anxiety, but not enough to cry the night before (YET! Knock on wood). Not sure why clinicals made me so freaked, I never had anything really bad happen in them.
And in response to what RBR said - YES! Get a PCT position. I recommend this like a million times over. Once I finally got working on the floor, I felt so much more comfortable working with patients. I still freaked before clinical, but a little less on those ones where we were in my hospital.
And as to the getting sick - I haven't, but know students who have. We had one girl from our school group pass out during a c-section. They know it happens. If something makes you feel off and you know you're gonna toss it up, just politely excuse yourself and regain composure. We are all human!
LTACH wounds...the worst of the worst! I worked in an LTACH for a year and a half, and for probably the latter 8 months I was one of the WOCN's lovely assistants. I knew when I interviewed there that one of their big things was complex wound care, but nothing could have prepared me for them.
Two things really got me during nursing school: watching a C-section during maternity nursing, and wound care. I'm not talking about small boo-boos or even large-ish surgical incisions. I'm talking about hip-to-ankle wounds that need daily debridement. I spent my last two semesters of clinicals at our local LTACH and the wound team nurses got to know me as "that student that passes out during dressing changes."
Fast-forward to 6 months after finishing orientation on a medical intermediate care unit, and I cringed the day I got report on a patient with a gangrenous toe needing q shift dressing changes. Guess what? I survived that. I still think wounds like the ones I encountered at LTACH would probably have me running for the door, but slowly I'm getting there!
I have gagged during trach care on someone with a bloody gangrenous neck tumor. The smell and sight of it was something. And let's just say I could have used elbow high gloves.
When I was pregnant, I vomited the entire 9 months anyway but GI bleed stool would do it to me every time.
middleagednurse
554 Posts
Hint: Try holding your breath or breathing through your mouth when you are dealing with strong odors.