You ever had those moments that you just want to barf? Of course you have! In this glorious Nurses Week contest, I want you to make us do just that. ? Is that too disgusting? 'Cmon. This will be fun. Share your 'Oh gross' moment and you can win a $100 Amazon Gift Card courtesy of allnurses Ebooks!
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I’m a NICU nurse??, I was emptying a baby’s ostomy bag (which smelled like a barnyard) with a syringe to get accurate I&O’s. I was pushing the syringe up to indicate how many mL’s were emptied and pushed a little too hard. Liquid poop went flying! It rained down all over the room, the floor, and myself. This is the one time I can say thank goodness for masks! I normally can deal with a lot... but this was horrifying and then there was the fear that poop was in my hair, down my shirt, and other places ? I couldn’t find any other evidence of the liquid elsewhere.... let’s just say I’m glad babies are cute and we wear masks! ???
Specializes in Critical care , Labor and delivery..
One day while helping one of my coworker/friends do a bed bath on a patient in a busy step down ICU we rolled her towards me. As we turned her back her trach tubing popped right of and the largest most greenest glob of sputum flew out and landed on my bottom lip. I asked my friend what the patient was postive for? Watching her pull out her notes and say nonchalant "oh no I don't think she has anything" made me gag even harder. I definitely cavi and bleached wiped my entier face that day!!????♀️
I was working in home care when all this happened, now mind you this is one house, one visit. I was asked to go to the back door, I really didn’t think anything of it. So I knocked on the door and a family member answered the door. First I was taken aback by the odor…manure? It can’t be, oh but yes! There was poo on the wall, in the kitchen, with 2 horses tied up to hooks hanging from the wall! They were smaller horses so, I guess? Then I was taken to the living room. The floor was covered with wall to wall astroturf!! And I could now see why I was directed to the back door, there were boxes of stuff against the front door and all along the walls. The question & answer part of our visit went okay, until it was time for a urine sample. I handed the patient a urine cup explained what I needed her to do in the cup and told her she could leave it in the bathroom. I explained that I would do what I needed to do in the bathroom so that she didn’t have to walk around with urine sloshing in her cup. I was just doing a dipstick, nothing exciting. The patient said “sure, but I only have one bathroom and there are chickens in there.” Huh? Chickens? I thought, it can’t be that bad, maybe an area with baby chicks and a heating lamp? NO!! There were 8 large chicken in the bathroom!! Not a big bathroom! Just large enough for a toilet, tub and sink! I am deathly afraid of those pecking beasts because I was chased as a child! Oh my goodness, they were loose! I hurried up out of the bathroom with pee cup in hand and did the urine dip at the kitchen sink. Picture me tripping as I shut the bathroom door, I didn’t spill though! The rest of the visit IN the house was unremarkable, I mean what else could happen? Oh I’m glad you are wondering… the patient asked if I wanted to see the rest of her animals. Being the young, new nurse that I was, I said sure. She took me to the side of the house where there were goats. Awe so cute! Until the only male in the group jumped up on me, put his legs/hooves on my shoulders and proceeded to HUMP ME! Then he wet the front of my scrubs! I’m going with urine, it’s the only way I can deal with this scenario! I was mortified! The patient thought it was funny! Really I just laughed because if I didn’t I really was going to cry. So with that behind me and the patient apologizing, she walked me to my car where there was a dead, decapitated snake next to the drivers side door! The patient proceeds to inform me that her cat must like me! I thought, ‘I don’t need this kind of like in my life, really!’ You can’t make this stuff up!
When I was in clinical in the ICU I had a patient on bipap. I was checking on them and their bipap mask was full of vomit. I went to pull the mask off so they wouldn't aspirate it and it poured down the front of them and it turned out they had an intestinal blockage and they were vomiting feces. The smell was horrible and I was a student nurse; trying to be professional and not gag. After their nurse and I got them cleaned up, the nurse wanted to put an NG tube down their throat as they were admitted originally for uncontrolled nosebleed and their nostril was packed. So the tube went in and gagged them, bringing another fresh round of vomit to be cleaned up.
Had a patient who was wheelchair bound whose wheelchair cushion was caked in dried feces. I'm talking what had to have been YEARS worth ?When we tried to rinse it off in the shower it was saturated to the core and hundreds of tiny cockroaches crawled out of the cushion and onto the shower walls ? Some of the water splashed onto my scrubs which promptly went into the garbage can. I will NEVER forget that smell ??
I work night shift. Unit couldn't figure out where a STRONG BM smell was coming from. The CNAs checked their patients. Nope all clean, but the smell was horrid in the halls.
You know how supplies can sometimes be set out in the hallway, like against a wall? Well someone noticed a brand new BSC that was placed against a wall.
?YES. Oh what a surprise when they lifted the lid
In the patients defense (never figured out who did it). They had to take a dump and it was right their OUT IN THE OPEN.
I'm sure Home Depot and Lowes has dealt with that before.
I was working in home care when all this happened, now mind you this is one house, one visit. I was asked to go to the back door, I really didn’t think anything of it. So I knocked on the door and a family member answered the door. First I was taken aback by the odor…manure? It can’t be, oh but yes! There was poo on the wall, in the kitchen, with 2 horses tied up to hooks hanging from the wall! They were smaller horses so, I guess? Then I was taken to the living room. The floor was covered with wall to wall astroturf!! And I could now see why I was directed to the back door, there were boxes of stuff against the front door and all along the walls. The question & answer part of our visit went okay, until it was time for a urine sample. I handed the patient a urine cup explained what I needed her to do in the cup and told her she could leave it in the bathroom. I explained that I would do what I needed to do in the bathroom so that she didn’t have to walk around with urine sloshing in her cup. I was just doing a dipstick, nothing exciting. The patient said “sure, but I only have one bathroom and there are chickens in there.” Huh? Chickens? I thought, it can’t be that bad, maybe an area with baby chicks and a heating lamp? NO!! There were 8 large chicken in the bathroom!! Not a big bathroom! Just large enough for a toilet, tub and sink! I am deathly afraid of those pecking beasts because I was chased as a child! Oh my goodness, they were loose! I hurried up out of the bathroom with pee cup in hand and did the urine dip at the kitchen sink. Picture me tripping as I shut the bathroom door, I didn’t spill though! The rest of the visit IN the house was unremarkable, I mean what else could happen? Oh I’m glad you are wondering… the patient asked if I wanted to see the rest of her animals. Being the young, new nurse that I was, I said sure. She took me to the side of the house where there were goats. Awe so cute! Until the only male in the group jumped up on me, put his legs/hooves on my shoulders and proceeded to HUMP ME! Then he wet the front of my scrubs! I’m going with urine, it’s the only way I can deal with this scenario! I was mortified! The patient thought it was funny! Really I just laughed because if I didn’t I really was going to cry. So with that behind me and the patient apologizing, she walked me to my car where there was a dead, decapitated snake next to the drivers side door! The patient proceeds to inform me that her cat must like me! I thought, ‘I don’t need this kind of like in my life, really!’ You can’t make this stuff up!
I thought when an RN told me his patient pulled out a gun during a home health visit was bad. The agency told him he shouldn't of called the police and that it wasn't a police matter. He quit the next day.
I was a brand new dialysis nurse and was on a unit in the hospital dialyzing a very large patient. I had been warned that this particular patient had been refusing baths and their room had a very foul smell. Inpatient dialysis nurses are required to stay in a patient’s room the entire dialysis treatment to closely monitor them. This particular treatment was 3.5hrs. So I made sure to put some essential peppermint oil in my mask to wear while I was in there. I did not help, AT ALL. The first hour, the smell was bad, but bearable. But the smell seemed to get worse and after an hour, I started getting nauseous. So nauseous that my mouth started to water like a was about to vomit. I quickly went to her bathroom and turned on the water like I was washing my hands then vomited in the toilet! When I was done, I called my charge nurse on my hospital phone and quietly told her what happened. To which she responded, “oh no, not you too!”. She told me she would call me back. Not even 10 minutes later, my favorite nephrology doctor came in the room with a face shield and N95 mask on! He had a talk with the patient explaining the importance of her getting bathed and that her dialysis treatment would stop until she got one! The patient broke down and told the doctor that she didn’t want baths because she was embarrassed for anyone to see a wound she had. She then lifted her apron and exposed a massive wound complete with maggots! The smell hit me so hard that I started retching and tried to run for the bathroom, but didn’t make it. I vomited all over myself!! And my favorite nephrologist in the N95 and face shield started retching too! I finished my day in hospital surgical scrubs. And I made sure to go back and apologize to that patient!
Had a patient like that on our unit. It was so bad that they was isolated. The room smelled like ammonia. Patient was strong willed and defensive. Everyone was afraid of her from charge, nurse, and CNAs. They went in and dropped of whatever and bolted out.
Well I had enough of the nonsense. Patient needed a serious dose a REALITY ORIENTATION! I did not care. Marched in and was like:
"Excuse me, but you need a bath"
"I don't want to take no bath, you guys don't know how to bathe me. Only my aid can bath me! Blah blah blah"
"You smell, the whole entire room smells. YOU NEED A BATH. You can't tell me that it is not bothering you"
More defensive dribble.
"Besides it is bad for your health, you are risking infections, and you will never get out of here"
Starts to concede "Well?!?!"
Me still maintaining a level authority, but now giving patient some sympathy. "I'll tell you what I will get someone to help me. Get you freshened up and fresh linen. You will feel SO MUCH better"
It was easy to find someone to help. Her linens must of weighed 25lbs+ from the 2 months of piss that were socked in. Never mind the piss that was socked in the plastic covered foam mattress.
Afterwards patient let us bath her, but it was much better.
_______
I knew I risked getting in trouble for being harsh, but someone had to do it.
One of my former nurse coworkers was a veteran nurse and hardcore nail-biter. It was gross.
One night she got an admit and we were getting the guy situated and doing a skin assessment. She pulls off his socks and he has vesicles all over his feet and ankles. She starts touching his feet with her bare hands. When we got him out of his jeans we saw that he had them all up his legs and some on his body. We told her she probably shouldn't touch him with her bare hands and he needs to put him in contact isolation precautions. We told the hospitalist about the vesicles. He goes in with iso gear. Not only does she not don iso gear, she starts touching his feet again without gloves even after we were discussing it was possibly scabies. The hospitals comes out and says "yup, I think that's scabies." Not 15 minutes later is this nurse nervously going in and biting her nails viciously. Mind you, I think she'd only used hand sanitizer during this time!
I had a post op CABG insist to manually disimpact herself while sitting on the toilet. She said she did it at home and that was her norm. (Sweet, right!?) Well Ms. Poo Poo fingers would dig some stool out, then “relube” her hands by splashing them around in the toilet bowl. All the while, just stirring and mushing up poo, to go right back in and repeat x what seemed like 10 times. I tried over and over to let her let me do it, but she’d refuse. Needless to say, I was stuck scrubbing poo out of nails and crevices poo should never enter.
Also found out days later she was being treated for post op CAB infection ??♀️??♀️
So I was working in the hospital at the time, on night shift, and had only been in my position for about 1 year. I had a patient that had been on the unit for at least 2 weeks. He was end stage renal failure, dialysis 3x a week, bilateral BKA, and was awaiting for surgical clearance for a cholecystectomy. He had the procedure the day before I was assigned to him. As the night progresses, the patient is getting sicker and sicker, and I've tried everything from IV nausea meds to nonpharm methods. So I reach out to my charge, who tells me to contact the hospitalist.
The hospitalist listens to what I say, and asks if the patient had been bladder scanned yet. "No, but he's anuric, so there shouldn't be anything there." She tells me to bladder scan anyway, and to straight cath if greater than 300 mL. I seriously doubted anything would be there, so I went ahead and scanned the patient. My jaw dropped when I saw the scan read 400 mL. I couldn't believe it! So I gather my bestest nurse buddies to come help me straight cath this patient.
I did all the good nurse things (explained the procedure, told the patient they may be uncomfortable for a minute) and prepared to do the procedure. What came out of this patient was like nothing I have ever seen before or ever seen again! Grayish, foul smelling goo came out of the catheter ?? I wanted to throw up myself! I asked the patient the last time he was able to urinate, and he said it had been well over a year since starting on dialysis treatment!
Whatever that substance was, had been sitting in his bladder for over a year! I called the hospitalist back and told her what had come out of him. Unfortunately, the procedure did not bring him any relief from his symptoms, and he passed away about 24 hours later.
Betsylyn
1 Post
I’m a NICU nurse??, I was emptying a baby’s ostomy bag (which smelled like a barnyard) with a syringe to get accurate I&O’s. I was pushing the syringe up to indicate how many mL’s were emptied and pushed a little too hard. Liquid poop went flying! It rained down all over the room, the floor, and myself. This is the one time I can say thank goodness for masks! I normally can deal with a lot... but this was horrifying and then there was the fear that poop was in my hair, down my shirt, and other places ? I couldn’t find any other evidence of the liquid elsewhere.... let’s just say I’m glad babies are cute and we wear masks! ???