Nurses grossed out by spit/mucus

Nurses General Nursing

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I'm starting this thread in hopes that I will read of some techniques to help me overcome my aversion to mucus. I can deal with foul BMs, emptying JPs and NG tube containers, draining clotty purulent foley bags, etc. but I have the darndest time keeping my cookies when it comes to snot! I was once helping a bilat AKA wipe his behind after the most awful case of smelly taffy doo-doo and had no problem until he asked me to dab at the clear snot dripping from his nose. I almost puked while doing so. What is wrong with me?

The usual Vicks/peppermint oil/other scent under the nose won't work here, because mucus (usually!) has no odor.

The last two semesters of clinical rotations, I have specifically asked to be assigned to a trach client just so I can force myself to have to deal with this. Unfortunately (or fortunately?) there have been no patients suitable for me at the facilities I've been at. I am approaching my last semester starting the end of August, and then hopefully I will be off to med-surg. I know at some point I am going to have to deal with this.

Is there hope for me? Does anyone have ANY suggestions?

Specializes in ER-TRAUMA-TELEMED-PEDS.

Reasons why I didnt do the RT route, absolutely no offense to the RT's, luv you guys/gals you do good work. The suctioning sound doesnt help either.

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Oh man, is mucus gross. I have to have my PCT collect sputum cultures because I can barely hang. And I'm in agreement, that GI bleed smell is pretty nasty too, but I would rather take care of 10 GI bleeds before one patient with a wet hacking cough.

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Specializes in ER-TRAUMA-TELEMED-PEDS.

Yes I agree, dentures are the second worst to mucus.....the smell, the cottage cheese, slime.......yuk

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Reasons why I didnt do the RT route, absolutely no offense to the RT's, luv you guys/gals you do good work. The suctioning sound doesnt help either.

How can you tell a nurse from a respiratory therapist?

Stand them both in stool up to their chests, and throw sputum at them. The one that ducks is the nurse.

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Specializes in Case Manager, LTC,Staff Dev/NAT Instr.
Ick.

The sight of mucous or "snot" doesn't bother me nearly as much as the SOUND of it. I could never work respiratory. *blech*

Can't stand the frothy, gurgly sounds.

Whew I am in the same boat....I'm getting nauseated thinking about it.:stone

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Specializes in Case Manager, LTC,Staff Dev/NAT Instr.
How can you tell a nurse from a respiratory therapist?

Stand them both in stool up to their chests, and throw sputum at them. The one that ducks is the nurse.

:rotfl: :rotfl: :rotfl: I'm ducking....
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I'm always glad to see someone get rid of mucous and getting

to see them breath again but I can't stand when

someone picks their nose in front of me. This really

does happen. They can talk and they can ask for

kleenex! I always make sure they have them before

I leave a room.

:o

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Specializes in LTC, assisted living, med-surg, psych.
Yes I agree, dentures are the second worst to mucus.....the smell, the cottage cheese, slime.......yuk

For me, dentures are THE worst......I'd rather suction a trach full of staph-laden green stuff (smells like unwashed socks, for the uninitiated) than clean a set of grotty dentures! BARF-OLA!!

I also hate feet.

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For me, dentures are THE worst......I'd rather suction a trach full of staph-laden green stuff (smells like unwashed socks, for the uninitiated) than clean a set of grotty dentures! BARF-OLA!!

I also hate feet.

really marla?????????????

call me sick, but i (almost) love cleaning dentures as it can be quite challenging restoring them to their smiling pearly whites.

and i always give foot care; it started out with checking the diabetics feet then realized that there were many with pretty horribly groomed feet. definitely not one of my favorite tasks but me and my patients feel better afterwards.

still gag at changing colostomies...urp...(excuse me) :rolleyes:

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This reminds me of working with open sores on my hands

and going in a room to help another girl and being told,

"No you don't have to wear gloves." No one should ever

tell you not to wear gloves when you work near body fluids.

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What gets me is the patients who

deliberately wait til you are within the line of fire and let you have it...from flatus to sputum/vomit/blood, etc you name it. :(

What is even WORSE is healthcare workers who withold info about infections like Hep B,C, 'suspected' TB and HIV so coworkers can't use that little extra bit of caution when the body fluids start flying through the air. :(

And please...don't anybody give me the line about 'we are supposed to treat everybody like they're infectious blah blah'. We do NOT routinely go into every room fully garbed for infectious flying-through-the-air body fluids, it isn't practical, nor do we have the time and resources...we are selective. We all deserve the opportunity to make an informed decision about how much PPE we use. It's to the point out there where I suspect passive aggression is behind withholding of such vital information from other healthcare workers....unforgiveable IMO and if I had my way it would be prosecutable. This from someone who was exposed in this way...ordered by a charge nurse to go and troubleshoot a patient without being informed of what he already KNEW and to be careful. I walked right into it, assuming another RN woud NOT send me in unprotected.. Boy was I stupid, eh?. (no I no longer work there and yes this is fully documented in case I convert) :(

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Specializes in LTC, assisted living, med-surg, psych.
really marla?????????????

call me sick, but i (almost) love cleaning dentures as it can be quite challenging restoring them to their smiling pearly whites.

and i always give foot care; it started out with checking the diabetics feet then realized that there were many with pretty horribly groomed feet. definitely not one of my favorite tasks but me and my patients feel better afterwards.

still gag at changing colostomies...urp...(excuse me) :rolleyes:

Yep, that's pretty bad too......I'm not real crazy about those aromas.

However, I'd still rather deal with ostomies than mouth and/or foot care. It's not that I CAN'T do it, it's just that these are two of the grossest areas on the human body, and the quickest way to make me want to blow chow-chow all over the room is hand me a set of dentures with a day's worth of food on them......EEEEEEEWWWWWWWW. A close second is having to take the shoes and socks off a homeless detox patient whose last bath was somewhere around the end of the Howard Dean campaign....... :uhoh21:

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I dont know why you guys have a problem with spit and mucus we all occasionally spit and pick boogers out of are nose.

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