Do you get over it?

[StL_Momma27]

I am not in a nursing program yet, but I wanted to know if seeing gory/nasty things gets easier. Whenever I have watched gory videos online or when I have witnessed an accident, I seem to zone out a little and I don't know what to do.

Does it get easier?

[Roy Fokker, BSN, RN]

I usually don't ever think about it. Sure it grosses me out at that particular time ... but once it's done, it's done.

:barf01::barf01:

That's a nice 1:4 ratio going on there...

[nerdtonurse?, BSN, RN]

Everyone's got their thing -- some can't take bleeds, others can't take mucus, other can't stand an infected wound with lots of pus and smell, others gag with necrotic feet. Burns make me puke, but it's because of what I saw outside the hospital at an industrial accident -- and when people burn, we smell just like burnt pork with burned hair and clothes mixed in. And I can't eat pork to this day. So, you take my burn, I'll take your GI bleed, and we'll all be okay...

[That Guy, BSN, RN, EMT-B]

I quickly found out my friends "it" thing is blood and when we walked into an arterial spray, she went down hard ha ha.

[Esme12, ASN, BSN, RN]

mucus is my Kryptonite...I've been known to barf in a wastebasket...and then continue doing what I needed to do...

Me too! There's alot I can tolerate but hockers aren't amongst them!!!!

[laurdra]

i would second guess entering a nursing program now. the new grads are at highest numbers and no jobs are out there. google new grads and jobs and look in all of the links of all the people desperate trying to get any job they can. we cant pay our loans and i graduated at the top of my class so i should be a top pick, plus i have years of medical volunteer experience. there is no shortage for new grads, yes for advanced nurses but not for us.

while it is true that it's hard to get a job a new grad rn, i don't think giving up your dream career in nursing is wise. it's hard for new grads for any profession right now. graduates from all majors are unable to secure jobs. this includes teachers, it majors, accountants, business admin, allied health, etc. this situation is not unique to rn's.

anyway, i can stomach blood and wounds but i am totally disgusted by poop.

[xtxrn, ASN, RN]

In school, my class had the opportunity to watch open-heart surgery...it was amazing (they brought us into the theater after cracking the chest-- the bone stuff would have creeped me out).... afterwards we went to Pizza Hut to the lunch salad/pizza buffet.... we had the best time talking about what we'd seen (1985- HIPAA wasn't alive yet- and we didn't use names)..... we CLEARED the place

GI Bleed poop is pretty rank- but you also know walking down a hallway if someone has it.

You also find your own way of dealing with smells- Vicks vaporub under your nose, or peppermint extract drops on a face mask help.

It becomes part of a "normal" day. Your "normal" will redefine itself many times during school :)

[xtxrn, ASN, RN]

i would second guess entering a nursing program now. the new grads are at highest numbers and no jobs are out there. google new grads and jobs and look in all of the links of all the people desperate trying to get any job they can. we cant pay our loans and i graduated at the top of my class so i should be a top pick, plus i have years of medical volunteer experience. there is no shortage for new grads, yes for advanced nurses but not for us.

while it is true that it's hard to get a job a new grad rn, i don't think giving up your dream career in nursing is wise. it's hard for new grads for any profession right now. graduates from all majors are unable to secure jobs. this includes teachers, it majors, accountants, business admin, allied health, etc. this situation is not unique to rn's.

anyway, i can stomach blood and wounds but i am totally disgusted by poop.

after a while, nurses discuss poop almost like talking about a vintage wine- different smells, after smells, color, consistency, and other assorted nuances :)

you will no longer be your non-nurse friends' favorite lunch companion :)

[nerdtonurse?, BSN, RN]

*grin*

Like the old adage -- a nurse can tell what antibiotics you're on from the smell of your pee.

I'm not that good, but c-diff, that's a unique smell, or the bloody bowel smell you can get in the breath of a necrotic bowel or upper small intestine bleed. Rancid bottom smell from a LOL from a nursing home who practically has either a brewery or a bakery down there from the yeast smell. And I can tell I'm not gonna be happy with what's under a bandage when I smell necrosis from the doorway to your room...but the worst to me is "vent smell" -- that smell people get in their skin when they're only getting TPN nutrition, have crappy kidney function (little uremic frost overylay, maybe) and they've been on a vent for a while. You can soap and wash and bubble them right out of the bed, and 2 hours later they smell bad again. Anybody ever come up with a good solution for that? Not for me, to make the patient smell better?

[Roy Fokker, BSN, RN]

Anybody ever come up with a good solution for that? Not for me, to make the patient smell better?

I haven't the faintest so I'm just throwing this out there - how about shaving cream or shaving lotion?

It helps with the poop - maybe it'll help here too?