Help me!!!

[jheath27]

I am a student nurse in my second semester. I love nursing school and have been doing very well. Clinicals are great with only one exception. When I am in a room and the patient has any serious wounds with alot of blood, I get nauseous, sweaty and have to leave the room or I will faint. This just recently started happening and when I think about blood it doesn't bother me. I can watch and administer injections, blood draws, IV's and watch any bloody medicals shows on TV and it doesn't bother me at all. I don't know if this is pyschological, the vasovagal response or what. I am really worried this is going to prevent me from becoming a great nurse. Does anyone know of what this is and how I can overcome this. Any information will be a huge help. Thanks

[luv2yoga]

I am worried about this. For me, it's the needles (esp IV) although when I watched a brain autopsy a few weeks back, I had to leave the room twice. It's a very interesting thing, I can feel the response starting in my body and it's very difficult to stop. I feel myself getting hotter, then I hear ringing my ears and then my sight starts getting dim and I know I better sit down or I'm going to fall. I found that doing my breathing exercises from yoga helped slow it down but obviously didn't stop it. My deal is that I am SO determined that I don't care if I have to pause every 5 minutes at the bedside, squat and stick my head between my legs, I AM NOT GIVING UP. I feel so embarressed about it (like it's a character weakness or something!), but I think when I get to clinicals I will just be matter-of-fact and straight up about it and ask my instructor to work with me to get over it. I've been told over & over on this board that we will get over it, and I'm trusting that.

Good luck to both of us!