Nurses grossed out by spit/mucus

Nurses General Nursing

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I'm starting this thread in hopes that I will read of some techniques to help me overcome my aversion to mucus. I can deal with foul BMs, emptying JPs and NG tube containers, draining clotty purulent foley bags, etc. but I have the darndest time keeping my cookies when it comes to snot! I was once helping a bilat AKA wipe his behind after the most awful case of smelly taffy doo-doo and had no problem until he asked me to dab at the clear snot dripping from his nose. I almost puked while doing so. What is wrong with me?

The usual Vicks/peppermint oil/other scent under the nose won't work here, because mucus (usually!) has no odor.

The last two semesters of clinical rotations, I have specifically asked to be assigned to a trach client just so I can force myself to have to deal with this. Unfortunately (or fortunately?) there have been no patients suitable for me at the facilities I've been at. I am approaching my last semester starting the end of August, and then hopefully I will be off to med-surg. I know at some point I am going to have to deal with this.

Is there hope for me? Does anyone have ANY suggestions?

I have a vomit phobia that I hope I can overcome. Mucus, blood, poo or urine doesn't bother me but if I hear someone gag I freak out. I don't know why. I have always been this way. My family makes fun of me because they know this is a phobia I have and they're wondering why I'd dive right into a profession where people will hurl from time to time. lol Because I love it, other than that whole puke stuff. I hope I'm not making a mistake. I second guess myself sometimes but thinking about when I was a NA at a nursing home and I delt with that so I think I can handle just about anything. I'd just turn my head while cleaning it and pretend it was spilled food. ICK!!!!!!!!!!!!!! :imbar

Spit/phlegm/etc I can handle by the bucketful (so long as I don't have to smell it). The one smell that makes me nauseous just remembering it is necrotic/gangrenous ulcers and wounds. The smell invades my lungs and throat and wages war against my upchuck reflex. Oh, and when you walk into a room where the sunshine is streaming through and you can see it snowing skin flakes... I try not to breath... Oh yeah, and one more thing (I'm remembering them all now) - we've recently had norwalk like gastro doing the rounds, and the smell of the diarrhoea was just so sickly sweet and pungent it turned me off my lunch break.

Despite that, I think us nurses have stronger stomachs than we give ourselves credit for. I mean, who else can sit in a cafe/restaurant and candidly discuss (in graphic detail) sticky green phlegm and diarrhoea of the pureed olive consistency without being (really) put off their food?

Respiratory goo was my absolute worst. But I got used to it, as used to it as it is possible to get. I even hate my own! :eek:

I had experience w/ colostomies when I was about 13 - my grandma had to have a transverse loop back in the days before karaya - I always hurt worse for her than for me. Karaya was a godsend. :D

I could deal w/ barf, blood, pus, even regular snot & spit, but respiratory goo!!!! I did get used to it, though, but it's still the worst. Right under that is dentures, I would hate to even clean my own if I had them! But it is SO impt to the pts! :uhoh3:

My worst odor experience was not r/t nursing - I had a job once in a research lab (college days) cleaning carnivorous lizards & feeding them raw liver - I had to pour lemon dishwashing liquid over me to get rid of the smell, had one outfit reserved for that job. THAT was gross. I guess between that & the colostomies & dentures in my family (I started caregiving VERY early in life) nothing else could faze me for very long. :)

I did have one wound that I had trouble getting used to - the poor pt had had a total exent for CA & it came back & grew thru' a sacral decub - got so used to packing it & the smell, one day after nites I went to the grocery store - never got thru' a store so fast in my life, all the aisles magically cleared out, had no trouble w/ coupons (& the cashiers at this place took the use of coupons as a personal insult), got checked out in record time...took me a while (hey, I was TIRED!) to realize why! So smelling ripe can have an advantage - tho' today I might find myself shot by someone peeved at the odor! :uhoh3:

But the worst for me is old people and their bowel fixation - I have told my son if I ever answer the question, "How are you today?" with the details of my last BM please slap me silly! That's worse than any wound or other body goo to me - and it doesn't involve anything but listening! :chair:

Lol!!! :lol2:

The first few weeks in the unit, I thought I'd never get through it, suctioning vent patients and all those secretions! (barf!) for me it was not looking at it that made me sick, it was the sound of it, although at times it was both. One of the RT's got a cup of water and made me use the yankaur to practice with, pretty soon it didn't bother me as much. Without this I'd still be gagging everytime. Maybe this would help you too????

The bad news is, now I've gotten over suctioning and moved on to total nausea over cleaning food filled dentures........ :imbar :stone

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WORKING AS A NURSE IN THE RESPIRATORY THERAPY FOR 16 YRS IN I.C.U.

SUCTIONING DOESN'T BOTHER ME AT ALL--TRY THIS INSTIL 0.5CC OF N/S

INTO TRACH OR E.T TUBE,BAG THEM DEEPLY FOR ABOUT 5 TIMES.THIS WILL

STIMULATE THEIR COUGH REFLEX,SO AS THEY COUGH ALL YOU HAVE TO DO IS SUCTION THE LESS VISCOUS PHLEGHM,ALMOST LIKE H20.SECONDLY TRY TO HIDE SOMEWHERE AND SUCTION JELLO=SIMILAR TO MUCOUS.REMEMBER

ALSO THAT IN AN I.C.U. SITUATION YOU ARE RESPONSIBLE FOR TOTAL PATIENT CARE,SUCTIONING IS GRATRIFYING WHEN YOU REALISE THAT YOU

HAVE NOW MADE IT EASIER TO BREATH.N*B. CHECK VENTILATOR PRESSURE REGULARLY, IF PRESSURE GUAGE GOES UP IT COULD BE A BUILD UP OF MUCOUS IN THE LUNGS,GIVE THE PATIENT A BRAKE SUCTION THEM OR, RE POSITION THEM AND CHECK PRESSURE GUAGE AGAIN REMEMBER THAT MUCOUS IS FOUND IN THE BOWEL FROM orifice TO ORAL PHARYNX.

THE FOOD LADEN TEETH I CANT HELP YOU WITH SORRY------ NRSDUG

of course the worst thing about receiving a lung transplant is bringing up somebody else's sputum!

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darlene: i am proud of you because suctioning comes with the elegant practice of being a nurse,it comes with the territory and you are on the right

track(or is that trach)n*b if your patient is being ventilated the pressure guage is one of your best friends as to if you need to suction or not, the high pressure alarm will go off as secretions build. good job nurse------nrsdug

How can you tell a nurse from a respiratory therapist?

Stand them both in stool up to their chests, and throw sputum at them. The one that ducks is the nurse.

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Good one :) make sure :rolleyes: You wipe the phleghm from the ceiling at the end of every shift----or let the R.T do it in return for the stool scene.---NRSDUG/RT :)

This is an interesting topic. You know I conducted a little informal poll in my unit, and I'm not sure of the reliability. It seems that females GENERALLY dislike sputum/suctioning/etc. more than males and that males GENERALLY dislike cleaning s..t more than females do. Just an interesting tidbit from within my unit. Nothing really bothers me anymore. I'm famous for saying, "I would wipe someone's *** with one hand while eating a sandwich with the other".:rotfl:

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Good one :chuckle I think it's true and I think that few men change diapers.

Peanut butter sandwich? ALL RIGHT.------NRSDUG/RT

What gets me is the patients who deliberately wait til you are within the line of fire and let you have it...from flatus to sputum/vomit/blood, etc you name it. :(

What is even WORSE is healthcare workers who withold info about infections like Hep B,C, 'suspected' TB and HIV so coworkers can't use that little extra bit of caution when the body fluids start flying through the air. :(

And please...don't anybody give me the line about 'we are supposed to treat everybody like they're infectious blah blah'. We do NOT routinely go into every room fully garbed for infectious flying-through-the-air body fluids, it isn't practical, nor do we have the time and resources...we are selective. We all deserve the opportunity to make an informed decision about how much PPE we use. It's to the point out there where I suspect passive aggression is behind withholding of such vital information from other healthcare workers....unforgiveable IMO and if I had my way it would be prosecutable. This from someone who was exposed in this way...ordered by a charge nurse to go and troubleshoot a patient without being informed of what he already KNEW and to be careful. I walked right into it, assuming another RN woud NOT send me in unprotected.. Boy was I stupid, eh?. (no I no longer work there and yes this is fully documented in case I convert) :(

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THAT WAS AN AWFUL THING THAT THE CHARGE nURSE DIDN'T WARN YOU.

WHAT IF YOU HAD GOT SERIOUSLY SICK OR EVEN DIED FROM H.I.V AIDS.

ALWAYS ASK ABOUT THE PATIENTS ISOLATION STATUS,IF ANTIBIOTIC IV

IS HANGING --WHY? LOOK GOOD AND HARD AT THE PATIENT --DON'T RELY TOTALY ON MONITORS,RATHER USE YOUR OWN INSTINCT AND DON'T TAKE A CHANCE IF YOUR MIND SAYS NO.GOWN,GLOVE AND MASK :rolleyes: -NRSDUG

of course the worst thing about receiving a lung transplant is bringing up somebody else's sputum!

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sorry jeff but you are way out of line on this flipant answer.

suctioning etc. is a mental state that can't be fixed by saying that there are

worse things than that----we know that---- it dosn't make suctioning easier ,knowing that someone is starving to death,lets deal with the issue at hand,not agrivate it lets help each other.this is caled team nursing-- :uhoh21: nrsdug

Thank you, Jesus, thought it was only me. I CAN NOT STAND mucous. My goodness, just typing about it makes me want to gag. My husband has had this bad cough for a while now, complete with green phlegm. He spits it in empty 20 oz. soda bottles if they are handy (which they always are in this house, since I am hopelessly addicted to Pepsi) he spits on the sidewalk as we are walking to the car to take our kids to church or daycare. I hear him bringing it up in the bathroom, and the splash of it hitting the bowl water, and I want to throw up! So gross on so many levels. My nursing school peers laugh at me all the time, and make suctioning noises when I come around ever since our instructor told us that most likely we will be doing trach care at our first clinical. :sniff: :sniff: :sniff: What am I going to do?

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YOUR HUSBAND IS BREAKING THE LAW: SPITING ON THE SIDEWALK IS AN OFFENCE,WITH IMPRISONMENT IN SOME COUNTRIES. If the sputum that he is spitting is clear or white bubbly he can swalow it..........

If you have a patient in the hospital who has pneumonia for instance,simply

give her him a box of tissues and a very large bag and TELL him to quietly spit into the tissue and place it in the bag.As for fellow workers mitreating you

pray for their ignorance. because the scriptures are right on.Ask for deliverance from their behavior and have some compassion towards you.

THEY HAVE THEIR WEAK SPOT TOO.keep the peace that passes all undestanding--God Bless---NRSDUG. I WIL PRAY FOR YOU ALSO!!!!!!! :angryfire

OK I'll do your mucus, flaky skin, tobacco and dentures.

Oh and fractures (22yr in ortho)

BUT you have to do my eyeballs, toenails and baby circs. Deal?

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I use to help opthamologists remove eyes ,for transplant,I got use to it.

Circumcision? hand the doctor the instruments then look away.

Toenails ?????????????????? never did it.

Flaky skin is poor nursing sepsis,what are they thinking?

Dentures. place in several tissues put in sink turn H2O ON HARDfor a while

go backto sink with several more tissues,hide the teeth part in tissue,rinse

residue if any, for tough spots--suck it up and do it Nurse----NRSDUG

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