Help, I hate Vomit - Can I still be a nurse?

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Help, I hate Vomit - Can I still be a nurse?

Dear Nurse Beth,

Do you have any advice for dealing with vomit? I truly want to become a nurse but I have a severe issue with vomit. The smell and the feeling of it gross me out to the point of nearly vomiting myself, even hearing someone throwing up is enough to set me off sometimes.

Blood, urine, and feces don't bother me a bit, but I just can't do vomit, and I don't want that to hold me back from what I want to do.

Any advice on getting over my aversion would be helpful.

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16 Answers

Specializes in Tele, ICU, Staff Development.

Dear Hates Vomit,

You can do it, and don't let this hold you back.

Most nurses have some kind of bodily fluid that grosses them out. I'm going to ask for the helpful and experienced nurses and PCTs here on allnurses to jump in with their coping strategies.

I've learned it's a bit of mind over matter. When I'm at that point of near gagging, I have to refocus: look down at my hands and count my fingers. Or maybe read the pt's date of birth on their ID band and mentally calculate their age...some kind of mind trick.

The point is to do this before my gag reflex is triggered. The one or two times I was close to losing control, I quickly exited the patient room to re-group.

Here are a couple of threads you may find helpful:

Cleaning up vomit

Best wishes, and btw, in nursing school you will learn to call it emesis ( a fancy word for vomit, but sounds better, don't you agree?)

Specializes in Neuro, Telemetry.

Don't worry. I've never met anyone who likes vomit so we're all in the same boat. Some people just tolerate better then others. Vomit also make me feel gaggy. Like saliva increase and everything. Same with sputum. Like the sound of the mucous while trach suctioning or when getting a sample. It's just blech. Or even c diff smell. Really bad bowel movement smell gets me sometimes. Basically, having an issue with some bodily fluid should not hold you back from nursing.

I am a CNA and a final semester nursing student. I have seen a whole lot of nasty, gag worthy thing and over time just grew accustomed. I can say that while working and in clinical, vomit has never been a focal point of the day. I could imagine that most units don't have vomiting patients all over the place all day long so this won't be something you have to endure all day long.

I have gaged in front of patients before. I just politely excuse myself if possible to regroup and then come back to finish the task once I have collected myself. But over time, this happens much less often. I would even say it's pretty uncommon for me to get queasy now around things that did it to me before.

Just go go in knowing your issue, and do your best to get your head straight when you have a vomiting patient until you get a little more used to it. And if you never get used to it, you will at least find ways to make it more manageable.

Specializes in Orthopedics, Med-Surg.

Barfing is like yawning: one person does it and then everyone wants to do it.

I used to be that way too but I've learned you can get used to anything. Back in my dive boat days, people used to get sea sick at the drop of a hat. I got used to it to the point that I was able to continue eating while some poor slob was chumming the water not 10 feet away from where I stood.

With me, it's the smell of emesis that will trigger the negative reaction; not the sight of it or the sound of the gagging. I learned to stand upwind. I also adapted a very casual attitude to it, making jokes about it, etc. Of course, you have to be careful about how you do that in front of patients. Some folks enjoy black humor; some find it very offensive. You better know your audience.

All of that being said, seeing or smelling emesis on a med-surg floor really wasn't that common an event. Maybe someone would puke on one shift a week; maybe it would happen several times a week though our nauseated patients often ended up with a NG tube to suction to keep their bellies decompressed if we couldn't tame it with pharmaceuticals. I wouldn't let this stop you if nursing is what you want to do.

My mom taught me to thrust my tongue against the roof of my mouth hard, and breathe through my nose. I think the act of deliberate breathing is distracting enough to keep me from retching. It has definitely gotten easier to be around vomit over time, I will say. And I think even the most seasoned nurse/CNA/physician/etc has their one gross "thing" they can't handle.

Specializes in ORTHO, PCU, ED.

As others stated, I don't know any of us that love emesis. Personally, it is easier for me to deal with than stool. We all have our "hate." For many nurses I know, mucous totally grosses them out but for me it's like "what's the big deal?" I can suction mucous all day for you if you'll obtain my stool specimen!! One tip for me, with emesis and stool is, when you go to empty it into the toilet, don't make yourself hear that lovely "dloop, dloop, dloop," ---while you're emptying your basin or whatever, start flushing so you don't have to hear that disgusting sound effect!!! Sorry guys to add so much detail, but we are nurses you know! ;)

Specializes in Educator.

Yes - of course you can still be a nurse! Just as everyone else has said we all have our Achilles heel when it comes to bodily fluids. Mine was vomit and sputum. Fortunately in the hospital I rarely encountered the full on "chunky" emesis (sorry to be graphic!) so I was able to learn to deal with it. I worked on the pulmonary floor for a while and I developed a way to cope with all types of sputum. After a while you become desensitized to a degree and you are able to control those gag reflexes. Good luck to you!

Maybe you should consider public health instead? Better hours and more stability also.

If you know your patient is going to be vomiting before hand, you would wear a face shield and mask to protect against bodily fluids. Before putting on the mask, smear a bit of minty toothpastes below your nose (not the mask because you don't want to destroy the integrity of the mask). Should help alot IF it's the smell that's gets to you. The same applies with still specimens.

SOme great feedback here and I agree with the comments! The thing is, no one really likes vomit. I have gagged myself. I have vomited myself at the sight, sound, smell of some of the things I am experiencing. But the thing is, I try not to make the patient feel uncomfortable because the whole process of not only being a patient is vulnerable, but so is the process of having someone clean up after us.

Wear a face mask and put a little dab of essential oils in it. Mouth breathe. Think the sooner this is cleaned up the sooner it will be over. Pre-medicate the patient to avoid nausea/vomiting if possible. And I would like to say that you get used to it over time, but shoot, I have been a nurse for over 10 years and I don't think I am. I just think of how grateful to be on this side of it. Good luck, don't let it stop you, don't only delegate it out to CNA's because that will make them not want to help you in the future, know there are many avenues for a nurse who does not perform bedside care, and know that this is only a small part of a very fulfilling career.

I used to have a completely out of control and debilitating fear of vomit. Like, it wasn't just a question of whether I could work in healthcare--it extended to my every day life. Pretty much every move I made and thought I had revolved around my fear. It was part of a larger anxiety/ocd problem.

Now, thanks 100% to (unintentional) exposure therapy, I can deal with it. I'm probably still more anxious about it than most, but I'm worlds better.

My point is, you can get used to it too. Never mind the fact that when a patient vomits you go into nurse (or EMT/CNA, in my case) mode, and you kind of don't even think of it as gross in the heat of the moment, because dealing with it is your job.

P.S. Sorry if this post was not coherent. I just had my wisdom teeth out and the painkillers are making me all fuzzy.

Depending on where you work, there isn't really THAT much vomit. If someone says "I think I'm going to be sick" take it SERIOUSLY and throw them a barf bag as you simultaneously push zofran. In 3 years, I've only had one of my patients puke like 3x. Not too bad.

I am the same way! I was so worried when I started nursing school about vomit, but the truth of the matter is it is very unusual for patients to come to my unit with new vomiting. If they are vomiting, it is just bile and water and doesn't resemble the stinky stuff gross we usually associate with vomit, because they would have already vomited their food at home or in the ER. I work on a Medical Oncology unit so we see a lot of bile vomit. Sorry to be gross and descriptive but its the truth.

If I do have to deal with something stinky or unpleasant, I go get a throat lozenge and put on a mask and breathe open mouthed. That way all you can smell is the strong throat lozenge.

For me, I thought vomit would be the worst, but in actuality, lung/throat secretions are worse, don't get me started.

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