Flying juices

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So my biggest fear is one day having to clean up vomit or some type of bodily fluid and it splashing on my lip or around my lip or even in my eye!!! Someone out there tell me the likeliness of splashing juices ! So fearful of contamination

Specializes in Med/Surg/Tele.

If you are getting splashed in the face while cleaning up then you are doing it wrong! Honestly, you need to decide if your fear of contamination is bigger than your desire to help people. I am not a fan of bodily fluids but when someone is sick I want to help them more than I am grossed out by their vomiting.

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Specializes in Reproductive & Public Health.

Just today I got a big phlegm loogy on my scrub top, perilously close to my face. My pt has a trach and had his speaking valve on. He coughed a HUGE cough and popped his valve right off, followed by a nice big mucous chunk. :lol2: It was pretty gross!

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O my goodness! This thread makes me laugh!

In a way I am looking forward to the "yuckies" of nursing. Its a place no one else will go. It seems honorable in a sorta honorable in a silly way :-)

Ok just footless pics of fungugating tomors....the stomach is turning....now I can identify what was going on around that mans ear the other day on the bus

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Excuse me fungating

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Does this actually happen?

Is it brash of me to say that they don't belong in Nursing if they are grossed out by bodily fluids? Are they really grossed out, or are they just dumping the '**** work' onto the CNA?

Yeah, it's happened to me. I honestly think that nurse is squeamish, but you may be right that she just didn't want to clean it.

Once, I was in a room with a patient who started vomiting his dinner (part of which was orange jello) onto the floor. I called the nurse to ask her to come assess him, and she stood there all green and looking at me like a deer in the headlights. Meanwhile the guy threw up all over the sheets.

He was a total deadweight; there was no way I could've turned him by myself but the nurse did not help me. I had to go ask another CNA to turn him with me. :(

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He was a total deadweight; there was no way I could've turned him by myself but the nurse did not help me. I had to go ask another CNA to turn him with me. :(

That sucks. I wouldn't have hesitated to help. That's how I am, and as far as I can see we're all on the same ship.

Or I'd like to think so.

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Specializes in Hospitalist Medicine.

The way I see it: it's part of the job...get used to the idea that it may happen sooner or later. Is it gross? Yes! But that's what we signed up for when we decided to become nurses.

I was a veterinary nurse back in the early 90s and you want to talk about some gross stuff...ugh! Seen it all and it ain't pretty. But you just sort of detach your self from the icky-ness and you get through it. That's why they have showers available for employees :) You'll live!

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I always work weekend evening shifts (2pm-10pm) and the housekeeping department is never

there. So we CNA take out the trash, and you would never believe the things I find in the garbage.

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Specializes in Cardio-Pulmonary; Med-Surg; Private Duty.

I'm always amazed that more nurses seem to be grossed out by mucus than by vomit or poop.... LOL

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Sorry for such a delayed response. I appreciate all the wonderful feedback! Yes, I will be a nurse. I am currently in Nursing School which is the reason I haven't been able to reply...exams and quizzes every week :( BUT back on the topic... I used to be a CNA in high school and was working at a nursing home one time when I had to attend to a patient who had diarrhea and using a bedpan. I will never forget. It spilled on his sheets and some of it splashed. I'm just so petrified for something to splash in my eyes or right on my lips! I won't be walking into every room with PPE so I was concerned.

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I do remember the first time I walked into the nursing home as a CNA. My first day was rough because all the smells were freaking me out. But I also do remember that as time progressed I got used to it. Cleaning up poop and bathing the elderly was just second nature to me. Poop was just poop. It was no longer icky. It's been like 5 years since I've done something like that so I guess it'll just take some getting used to again! Thank you all

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