During school, did you see anything gruesome

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Hi. I'm new to this site. Here's a few info about me. I'm from CA and Im 19 years old. I recently had a career route change. I first went to college undecided then I decided to pursue in Business(even though I didnt feel so passionate about it) but I always had nursing in mind; always wondered the whole works behind it. I like Biology but I am horrible in the subject. I pulled a high C :(. However, at the same time I'm a little scared of hospitals because they always reminds me the tramitized times I experienced when I was little. Long story. But anyways, I am curious...during school did you see anything gruesome? If youre out of school, did you see anything like that at work?

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Specializes in Peds, PICU, Home health, Dialysis.

It is almost guaranteed that you will see something "grusome" in nursing school. You do rotations throughout the hospital and you will see things that astonish you. Very little astonishes me, but I must say a few experiences have really stuck with me -- one was a fairly obese gentleman who had abdominal surgery, and surgeons decided to leave the wound open to heal... that was very shocking to see that. And the other was in the burn care -- any type of severe burn patient really affects me.

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Specializes in Med/Surg, Tele, IM, OB/GYN, neuro, GI.

The only "gruesome" thing that I can think of was helping a RN change a patients linens that was bleeding out. Pt was a DNR and just rolled over and went to sleep after we were done. I was asked if I had a strong stomach before I went in (I was thinking a serious bm or vomit everywhere not blood). Wait maybe the patient who's foot was rotting off and when you asked what happened the patient would just say it hurt to walk on but was fine.

It's different when you see it on TV or as a person watching but when you have to do it you forget how gruesome it is and go in with the mindset that you're there to help the patient. If you react to what you see and the patient sees you doing it it can cause the patient to start to panic more and that's not what you want.

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Specializes in ICU, CCU,Wound Care,LTC, Hospice, MDS.

Shotgun blast to the abdomen. It's not at all like you see on TV and you'll never forget it! How about viewing an autopsy right before lunch?

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Specializes in Emergency Midwifery.

It's the smells that stick in my memory.....

Like gangrene and the tracking sinus wound.

There was a double toe amputation that was left open (I think he ended up losing his leg). Or the stomach wound that was cut open on the ward.

Still the only thing I think that is gruesome is sputum. :lol2: The rest I can deal with.

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Specializes in ICU, telemetry, LTAC.

Butt surgery on an ample woman who hadn't washed in a long time.

Let's see. Oh yeah, a really productive trach on a dying patient. Bad.

An ICU patient with weeping edema (more like running off her in all directions) and a PEG tube, along with the vent, central line, peripheral lines, and a whole bunch of other stuff. IMPOSSIBLE to keep anything clean or dry, and to top it off she had explosive liquid diarrhea and MRSA. We put in a rectal tube and proceeded to have a better day.

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Specializes in Med/Surg, Tele, IM, OB/GYN, neuro, GI.
Still the only thing I think that is gruesome is sputum. :lol2: The rest I can deal with.

I agree it's not only gruesome it's also gag worthy especially during trach care.

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We put in a rectal tube and proceeded to have a better day.

:yeah::yeah::yeah:

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Specializes in Everytype of med-surg.

I saw a few things during nursing school that could be considered gruesome. The thing that affected me the most was seeing child abuse cases during my pedicatrics rotation.

If you decide to be a nurse, you will have to understand that you will see heartbreaking cases everyday. It does not help the patient if you lose composure. You have to make sure that you have interests and goals outside of work in order to keep your sanity sometimes.

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Specializes in private duty/home health, med/surg.

Still the only thing I think that is gruesome is sputum. :lol2: The rest I can deal with.

:yeahthat: I would gladly trade trach care/suctioning for any code brown.

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Still the only thing I think that is gruesome is sputum. :lol2: The rest I can deal with.

I know that's right...
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Specializes in ER.

Saw lots of "gruesome" stuff in school. Over time I realized that I really liked it too, so here I am in the ER:):lol2:

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