Which nursing skills do you dread?

Nurses General Nursing

Published

What nursing skills do you absolutely hate doing? Even if it is super easy and not time consuming? Which orders do you read and just think to yourself, aw man! I hate doing that!! I'm just curious!

I hate doing dressing changes. (I think b/c we get a lot of gangrene wounds... and they stink!)

I also loathe hanging blood! I don't know why... it isn't difficult

And of course enemas and disimpactions aren't too fun either!

I also hate giving eye and ear drops. I don't know why...

I also hate having to collect stool samples... ewwww the idea of scooping up the poop into the little cup... gross :lol2:

When you get it in the wrong orifice, leave it in. Start over (with all new sterile stuff, obvy) and aim above the first one. It's your landmark.

Good advice. And then have them cough. It will 'wink' at you. ;)

Up Vote Up Vote ×
Specializes in Med/Surg, Ortho/Neuro.
.....trach suctioning, packing tunnelling wounds, disimpactions.......

Oh, I just hate disimpactions, packing and unpacking tunnell wounds (and trying to keep a straight face). Trachs.......thankfully, they are few and far between on our floor. Starting an IV on an obese patient, and then mgmt giving me an attitude when I'm unable to get a line.

Up Vote Up Vote ×
Specializes in ortho/neuro/general surgery.

I hate caring for patients my age or younger that have terminal cancer or a chronic debilitating illness such as MS or MG.

I hate dealing with DT's, I seem to get the patients that are either Ativan-resistant and it seems like nothing is working, or they're so Ativan-overloaded they require multiple doses of that one drug that reverses it, isn't it called something like Flumazanil?

Up Vote Up Vote ×
Specializes in Med-Surg Nursing.

I HATE doing trach care!! I am also not big on dressing changes. But I do it, because it is my JOB!!! Now if every nurse I worked with had my philosophy, things where I am at would be a LOT better. We've got ONE RN who misses things ALL THE TIME. Yet management does NOTHING about it.

Up Vote Up Vote ×
Specializes in Making the Pt laugh..

About 14 years ago I was doing Primary Health Care in a tent in the middle of nowhere, (in the Army). A patrol came in as I was heading to breakfast and one of the members had a huge boil he wanted me to look at. I gloved up, didn't worry about a gown or mask to "check it out"........Big mistake! as I touched it, it exploded all over me witrh a thick chunky pus.

To make things worse after cleaning up and going to the mess, the first dish in the bain marie was a curry the same colour and consistency, I ran outside and threw up. The first time anything ever got to me.

To wrap things up, there is this one type of pus that I just cannot handle...nothing else bothers me.....yet!

Up Vote Up Vote ×

Those posts were all way too entertaining and so the reality of nursing.

Although I noticed it was one of the least favourite nursing skills...Trache suctioning and disimpacting are my life at present and bug me na-da.

But..when I was a nursing student, a man with a fresh trache hurled phlegm out across the floor nearly landing on me and the remainder hung in strands from the outer part of his cannula...I remember this so vividly to this day and the rancid smell.

Oh so happy I just relived that moment again.:lghmky:

Up Vote Up Vote ×
Specializes in TCU.
Anything to do with sputum or feet LOL. Collecting a sputum spec or putting on TEDs makes me physically ill. I nearly passed out once watching a podiatrist cutting this patient's toenails... you know, thick, crusty, yellow, curly toenails. AAAAUUUGGGHHH!!!!!!!

You gave me a good laugh Emmanuel!

I love to clip toenails, even the funkiest don't bother me!

Anyhoo, not much bothers me as a CNA, and I was trained in the 80's when we were allowed to do dis-impactions, enemas, and suppositories. I have also worked in a unit with pt's who were comatose, and on vents and had g-tubes; the only thing I didn't like about that job was giving those pt's a bath. I was always freaked that I might get water in their trach, or pull out a tube! :bluecry1:

Up Vote Up Vote ×
Specializes in Med/Surg, Home Health.

Blood transfusions! I HATE doing that!

Up Vote Up Vote ×
Specializes in ortho/neuro/general surgery.

nasogastric tube insertion, i've had one so every time i put one down i feel the sensation in my own throat, and then have to yank it back out and have someone else do it :no:

Up Vote Up Vote ×
Specializes in Paediatrics - Neuroscience/Cardiac.

i just hate poo and chuck now. oh and sitting with anorexic girls while they eat... i dont judge but i get so annoyed i have to sit there for 30 mins when they know they're not going to eat.

Up Vote Up Vote ×
+ Add a Comment