20 years ago, I worked for a plastic surgeon as a receptionist. I told him of my dream to be a nurse. He allowed me to "assist" him with a procedure once. The procedure consisted of a patient who had some fluid build up? after a tummy tuck. He took a long syringe and proceeded to draw the fluid from her abdomen at which point I turned green and nearly passed out. My dream bubble had burst and I started telling myself I'd never be able to hack it. I was once told that this is something that you get accustomed to, that things like this don't bother you as much after awhile. So, I'm just curious if any of you are worried about this or do you all have iron stomachs?
It's like I have this internal switch, flip it up, I'm just me and gag if I get to close to the kitty litter box, flip it down and I'm the nurse who patiently cleans up the vomit from the post-surgical patient who is not coming quietly out of her anesthesia. I still don't LIKE any of the "gross" stuff (vomit, feces, urine, sputum, etc.), but there is part of me that I sorta turn off so that I can just do what needs to be done to take care of my patient. It's not really something that I am aware that I do, it just happens.
trust me, no one thought I would be able to handle it. My hubby thought for sure I was going to end up puking on a patient.
im with you guys, anything but sputum. which is why I work in psych! :barf01:
I used to to think I couldn't handle sputum. Now I work on a vent unit, I'm constantly suctioning pts. Sometimes the secretions are bloody. Now, poop bothers me more than sputum. Go figure... :)
JeniLyn
2 Posts
You guys are awesome! Thank you so much for your stories. They are really helping my confidence in this!