Do i not have what it takes?

I have what I call the Urp Scale. It's like the Richter Scale, but for puking. A 3.0 is barely queasy, but at 4-4.5, you're actually making "Urp" sounds. Around 6ish, you get to taste your own stomach contents, and by 6.5 there may be actual emesis. 8.0 is projectile. So far, I haven't gone past six at work, but that's decidedly unpleasant. But after 8.5 yrs, I rarely go past 3.5.

:rotfl: That was hilarious!

But I'd have a handy Vicks Vapor Rub in my pocket for those dire needs.

Vicks Vapor Rub under the nose = the problem solver.:chuckle

:roll "karenG" SOOOOOO FUNNYY!~ Oh my GOSH!!!!!!!!!!

hey.. I'm fine as long as there are no bits of bone sticking out or any red stuff... so I really am useless at major trauma stuff! now eye surgery is a different story.. that I love!

you would think after being a nurse for nearly 30yrs I'd have learnt how to cope with the red stuff........

Karen

Myself i could eat lunch during a code brown. What gets me is the smell of a bad trach the prior 2 shifts just ignored.

The only time my gorge ever rose (but didn't overflow) was taking a clear-sided suction canister brimming full of mucus the 10 feet from the wall to the kick can. It didn't smell or anything, so it must have been the pure visuals, you know, the way it kinda quivered like a jellyfish.

I agree with the majority, give it time. Get through any way you can now and it will settle down. Vomit is the one that gets me and I can almost get through that after over a year. It does get better and you'll be in this job for all the right reasons.

To Nurse Mike: you are a sick man but I LOVE IT!!!

To Rocky: man give yourself a break! I started out as an EMT back in 2000, and code browns used to disgust me, but after working in the field and smelling the halls of SNF's for this transport, or that transport, you get used to it, some people take longer to adjust than others. By the time two years later that i'd applied/started LVN school, there was only one thing that would turn my stomach, and that was wretching, I can deal with chunky vomit, can deal with foleys, deal with blood spraying all over me during clinical from an episiostomy (and yes that literally happend to 3 of us with an instructor), you name it... but a patient in the throes of wretching trying to get up something, for that I have to leave the room.

ER isn't goint to be any easier, you have alot of SNF's that send patients that are still code brown material for this test or that, and the ER personnel still has to change diapers, even when it's on a small dinky ER gurney, and not in a full sized med/surg bed.

Wayne.

I've always had a pretty strong stomach and over 27 years of nursing and NP I have my hands in areas and in fluids that would gag an outhouse maggot. But the thing that sometimes gets to me is false teeth. I hate handling them and especially hate removing them from a patient. Don't know why but false teeth sometimes bother me.

I'm weak on a Code Brown as well. What gets me most is the odor. I know, I know, it's nothing special, but I've helped change the dressing on a Stage IV decubitus and it didn't phase me a bit, but the Code Brown that followed haunted me for a week.

One thing I now do, and this might seem bizarre, but hey, it works for me... half a square of toilet paper, rolled into a ball, and shoved up my notstril, repeat. The patient can't see them, and it blocks all the smell.

Another thing I've seen other nurses I've worked with do is mask up and under the mask they take the small thing of vicks rub out of their pocket and dab just a bit under their noses. The patient can't see it's there under the iso mask and all you smell is vicks. Just a suggestion, and I know one of the other posters already suggested it, but wandering around inside someone's room with "goop" hanging off your nose isn't too presenting...

And they usually sell the small things of vicks rub that'll fit in your scrub pockets there in the trial section of like target or a big store chain. It's well worth the investment of a couple of bucks if it bothers you.

Wayne.

What makes me hurl is having to empty a colostomy.........that's the worst ever odor! I gag nearly every time I have to do it! :barf01:

Had a patient once come into ER with lower legs wrapped up and the smell was SO bad (one was wrapped in PLASTIC) that the entire full-up waiting room was standing outside the doors!

Over time I've learned to tune out smells.. thank God. Nothing really makes me hurl but I DO cringe when I hear bone fragments grinding. Just something about that sound .

Poop is the least of what you'll smell. You'll get over it, don't worry. Oh and with age, don't the old olfactory senses get duller? Perk of being older I guess LOL!