What grossed you out the most in nursing school?

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I'm starting nursing school in June and I'm curious what grossed you out or surprised you the most the first time you did it. For example, I imagine that it will be hard for me to put in a catheter for the first time due to a horrible childhood experience with it.

I also did some job shadowing with a nurse practitioner in a teen health clinic earlier this year and was surprised at how embarrassed I felt over seeing people's genitals. It's not like I haven't seen it all before, just not a stranger's or up so close and personal wit touching. I almost felt like a peeping tom (I think it would have been better if the NP had asked the patients permission for me to observe of if I actually had something to do).

Specializes in Emergency Dept, M/S.
Excavating half a pound of poo-poo from a demented womans lady parts is by far the grocest thing I have ever done. In addition to stuffing in in there, she also had done a little "nursing home redecorating" with it. Lost my apetite for several days after that one.

YIKES!!

Do they have a name for that new diet?? :chuckle

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Specializes in Emergency Dept, M/S.

Stage 4 pressure ulcers. What a wonderful patient this person was, but that was very hard to see/smell, especially on my very first day EVER at clinical. It was better knowing that the pt. was not in any pain from it, but still - to look at that, you wonder how the pt. could have been neglected for so long.

I did get to work with the wound care nurse that day though - what an amazing woman!

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Anything that involved sputum!! Even the word is gross!! :p

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Specializes in NICU.

Note to self: do not read threads with a high probability of feces-related posts while eating a chocolate bunny . . . :uhoh21:

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So far the worst I've seen is a Stage III pressure ulcer. It was on her bottom and it was the size of both my hands. It was so awful looking, and the smell just about knocked me out. I didn't eat the rest of the day. An RN was nice enough to recommend carrying Vick's with me. I still haven't gotten it, so I hope I don't have to smell anything like that again tomorrow.

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Note to self: do not read threads with a high probability of feces-related posts while eating a chocolate bunny . . . :uhoh21:

I love it!!!! :chuckle This is one of the best threads yet. Thanks everybody for your input, and humor! You are all angels, and I hope to soon have the same claim to fame. I hope to start in the fall, and this really gives me an idea of what to look forward to. Hang in there and good luck.

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Specializes in Emergency & Trauma/Adult ICU.

Sputum, by far, bothers me the most. I'll deal with whatever smells I have to, I just can't stand sputum.

I dread seeing pts. who are on thickened liquids, because when water is thickened, it looks like ... sputum. Yech. And thickened ginger ale? Oh, let's not even go there ... :uhoh21:

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Ive seen poop, loogies,vomit, and ulcers with no problem. Then I went to the OR where I was assigned to watch the scraping of a uterus after a miscarriage. This was BY FAR the worst! I dont really even want to describe what I saw but it was really bad.:uhoh3:

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Specializes in NICU.

GI bleed diarrhea.

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Specializes in Home Health Care.

Green and yellow loogies (i got over that the first week in the OR).

I almost chocked on a grape! :chuckle Eeeewwww, you all have seen & smelled some nasty stuff :chair:

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Three things stand out in my mind. During a surgery rotation, I had to 'observe" a hemmorhoid removal. Enough said about that.

Secondly, I had a patient who had a stage 4 pressure ulcer on his butt that had literally eaten off both of his entire cheeks and bones were sticking out. I had to pack the tunnelling. Talk about raunchy. I heaved and thank God no puke came out. It was a crater the size of a bowling ball where his butt used to be.

Third experience involved puke. I hate puke! This lady was in renal failure and all the toxins in her blood made her sick. She was about 400# and lying on her back. I went to check on her, she proceeded to vomit, so I tried to roll her on her side ( No easy task) and when I tried to roll her, puke sprayed across my forehead. I freaking lost it. I alcohol prepped my entire face! EWWWWWW!!!!!

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We had a week of just watching surgeries. We could stroll from OR to OR, look at the schedules and just stick our head in the door and ask the surgeon if he would't mind us watching. It was really casual.

Anyway, I wasn't looking closely enough at the schedule and walked in an OR where they were getting ready to do an Orthopedic surgery, so I thought, okay. Anyway, it was to be an amputation, and I thought okay I can handle this, but when they started using power tools (a saw) I just HAD to leave. I thought I'd pass out right then.

The next oooky thing was eye surgery. Seeing the dr. use all those sharp pokey things ON someone's eyeball was just way too much for me.

I can deal with the rest of the stuff. Just those surgeries are too much.

Oh gosh. I forgot to mention circs. Those are really upsetting.....

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