What Freaks You Out?

Nurses General Nursing

Published

Okay, people. It's time for a nice, fun, light-hearted discussion to blow off some steam.

WHAT FREAKS YOU OUT? What bodily fluid can't you STAND? What wound gives you the absolute WILLIES? It doesn't matter if you're an ADN, BSN, LPN, CNA, PQRST, ABCDEFG...every body gets the heebie jeebies over SOMETHING...even you stomach-of-steel ER nurses!

Mine is eyeball injuries/surgery...aaaaaaaaackkkkkkk!! Gross! Makes my skin absolutely CRAWL. Or when someone gets a little cut on their finger/toe/whatever and then squeezes it to make it bleed!! Bleah!! Then there's the ever-popular RESPIRATORY SECRETIONS. I can handle poop, pee, amniotic fluid, lanced boils, pus, whatever...but give me a nasty snot-filled trach, and I'm OUTTA THERE.

Share, share, share people! biggrin.gif

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Specializes in Med-Surg, Long Term Care.

My all-time favorite allnurses thread!

I recently attended a presentation on wound management put on by our WOC nurse. Lunch was provided and as a roomfull of nurses sat eating our sandwiches and pasta salad, it made me laugh to see us placidly chewing away, unfazed, while we watched ghastly slides of Stage IV pressure ulcers. And I've read through horrible descriptions on this thread while eating and hooting in laughter (or horror) between bites! Only a nurse could... :p

Specializes in Med-Surg, Long Term Care.

My all-time favorite allnurses thread!

I recently attended a presentation on wound management put on by our WOC nurse. Lunch was provided and as a roomfull of nurses sat eating our sandwiches and pasta salad, it made me laugh to see us placidly chewing away, unfazed, while we watched ghastly slides of Stage IV pressure ulcers. And I've read through horrible descriptions on this thread while eating and hooting in laughter (or horror) between bites! Only a nurse could... :p

I must admit, I don't really have too many things that get to me. I use to work as a CNA and a Dental Assistant and am now in school. But...there is one thing that just sends me running for the vapo rub in the mask...the smell of periodontal disease. I worked for years in Periodontics and Oral Surg. Ugh, that smell will be with me for years, I can smell it across a room. I can't tell you how many times we've picked off 3mm thick calculus off a tooth...the smell is ungodly!

I can't stand eye stuff. I can't even handle the glass eye stuff. Had a patient who complained no one cleaned her eye in ages, so I volunteered, thinking it was going to be a quick swipe with the 'ol washtowel. Nooooooooooooooooo, she means her GLASS eye. Pop that sucker out by slipping your finger under it (BTW, you can feel the back of the socket when you do this), rinse the socket, scrub the eye (even looks at ya under the water) and pop it back in.... YUK

Vomit when it happens within 15 minutes after the patient has eaten. :(

Specializes in LTC,Hospice/palliative care,acute care.
Originally posted by ainz

Vomit when it happens within 15 minutes after the patient has eaten. :(

ewww....one of my gals had a massive CVA in front of the nurse's station one day after lunch.I held a towel to her face as she gagged-so I caught it-a handful of warm tuna....yech.....I have not eaten tuna salad since...

Goodness, it just took me two days of on and off reading of this thread to get through the whole thing ... only a few things that made me gag so I must be doing okay.

Worst I've seen, and I'm a Nurse Tech with two years of Nursing school to go, was a grapefruit size blood clot fom a postpartum patient. Spanish speaking, first kid, coming out of the shower and this "thing"is comint out of her and she's holding it in with both hands and her husband uses the call light to get me in there. Holy Cow! I very calmly indicated that I would be right back and then RAN for the nurse in charge and her come look at it. Of course, it was normal and everything was fine and the RN explained the whole concept of clotting to me later but Good Grief! I thought her liver was falling out or something! :rolleyes:

Reading all this didn't bother me in the least - Now if I can only keep the same attitude when I begin running into some of these - - - -

Specializes in 5 yrs OR, ASU Pre-Op 2 yr. ER.

C-Diff I don't think I'll ever really get used to. The air freshners in the rooms help me keep my 3 am meal down.

Had a patient with the dry heaves last night, she was making the most horrific vomiting sounds. The mere sound of this woman was making me a little nauseated, but then again that sound typically affects a lot of people that way.

What 'christened' me (we use that term to describe someone who has come in contact with something that finally hurled the cookies) was a man that was a stage IV cancerous brain tumor (very sad), and had a trach, and a big phlegm problem. He would cough and it kinda oozed out and we had to clean this up, which didn't bother me.

However went in my second time in his room just in time to watch about 150 cc of bright green phlegm shoot out of the trach 6 ft across the room, and SPLAT on the wall and ran on down towards the floor. It took me 2 days to eat solid food after seeing that. My stomach still churns to talk about it.

Had quite a few laughs and "Yep, that's nasty!" reading this thread!

I used to have a hard time controlling my own reflex to vomit when I heard or saw someone retching; I got over it during Nursing School. Boy, and putting down an NG tube was enough to make me gag... but that passed as well.

The only thing that really bothers me now is copious amounts of sputum (I think that may end up as #1 on our top 10 list of hurl-inspiring fluids). Vent patients with endless secretions, confused or careless patients that bring up huge slimy globs and then spit them into their bed ... makes me shudder to remember some of them.

The worst moment was when I had a slightly disoriented gentleman spit (a nice fat green one, as I later noticed) into the empty water cup on his bedside table. A few minutes later, having clearly forgotten what he had done, he picked up the cup to drink from it. I don't think I've *ever* moved sooo fast - stopped him just in time.

Uggh.. even the memory brings up the urge to purge....

Specializes in Critical Care and ED.

The one thing I cannot bear is the smell of the great unwashed. I can't deal with tramps or old people who haven't bathed in like 6 months. Having to undress them and peel through 15 layers of stinking, stained and rotten clothing. No freakin' way! That's why I couldn't do community nursing. I did it once...for one day, but the guys house was so disgusting I didn't want to touch anything. eck09.gif Give me a nice clean, sterile hospital setting anyday. Once the patient has been through ER and arrives in the ICU in a nice white hospital gown, I can pretty put up with anything after that.

The absolute worst thing that happened to me was when a sweet little old ladt was admitted complaining of leg pain. She had had a leg ulcer for a while, and it was covered in a ratty old bandage that looked like it had'nt been changed in a while. I started to take it off and I just knew what I was going to find. The smell was overpowering, and I had to wear a mask with a charcoal liner to deal with it. Under the bandage, her entire foot was black and rotting and there were maggots crawling around in the rotting flesh. To this day I am traumatized! She ended up with an amputation, and I ended up with a phobia! eck15.gif

Specializes in Geriatric/ Home Care.

I think the respiratory snotties are bad but the one thing I cant forget.........one of the floor nurses came around to my desk one day and said...he has worms in his foot!, and walked away...of course i couldnt let it go at that and had to go look, an elderly diabetic, renal failure man, with a necrotic foot....he had been going out for dialysis and would return with the bandage off his foot, and being warm weather..............big crawly maggots by the hundreds.....AAAAAGGGGHHHHHH! Still gives me the crawlies, and probably always will!!!!

Nursenan

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