Nursing Question

[ttpurtee]

For all you nurses, if cleaning up vomit makes you gag or almost throw up yourself, do you think that is a sign that you would never be able to handle being a nurse?

[NickiLaughs, ADN, BSN, RN]

Nah, I can't handle spit, and I've worked as a nurse for a while. :) Most nurses have something that makes them gag. I was working my butt off in training as an LVN student one day, and my Teacher came in to help because it was an overwhelming day for me and the nurse I was training with. She went and dumped a bedpan full of poop and I heard her gagging. She told me that most nurses have something they don't do well with, but they get over it and focus on the patient and it makes it easier. And it does. I had this poor boy with chemo once while I was training and he would spit all the time, and it made me want to gag, but you do learn to control it with time.

[JustBeachyNurse, LPN]

Not necessarily. Vicks Vaporub can be a wonderful thing. (A little under the nose pretty much blocks even the most noxious smells)

[dthfytr, ADN, LPN, RN, EMT-B, EMT-I]

Doesn't mean anything! Sit near a table of nurses eating lunch and you'll hear them discussing what to most would be the most stomach emptying stuff while enjoying their own lunch. "I had to lavage this guys stomach because he had bleeding ulcers, and the stomach contents looked and smelled like he'd been drinking beer and eating chilli cheese dogs with extra onions, in addition to the smell of blood.":D

[seizureffect]

I've been wondering the same thing! Vomit grosses me out to no end. I get queasy when someone is coughing really hard, or if someone even says they are nauseous. It's terrible, actually. But I figured that the best way to get over it is just to deal with it, because I really want to be a nurse.

Plus, I can handle it when my partner or her kids are sick, so I think you kind of just turn off your "normal mode" and switch into "caretaker mode."

Either way, this is what I tell myself: The absolute worst, most embarrassing thing that can happen is that I puke myself, pass out face first into it, pee myself, and then wake up with my professors and classmates all staring at me. That won't kill me, I'll survive, and keep going. So if that is the worst that I can envision happening, and I know I won't die from it, I guess I'll keep on truckin'.

Now, come back to me in 6 months when my first semester of Nursing school will be complete and ask me if I feel the same way

Good luck, you can do this!

[biblepoet]

I gag at secretions from the lungs. Does not mean I do not make a good nurse. I just have to try to remember that I am helping someone and go on.

[indigonurse]

Could be the first clue.

[seizureffect]

Could be the first clue.

Not true, and not the most helpful response either.

I'm pretty sure that there is some bodily function/fluid that can turn a stomach, even those belonging to the best nurses out there.

[Nomadnurse, L.P.N.]

Everyone has something they can't deal with. I worked with a nurse that couldn't stand the smell of poop. Mine is the deep throat clearing sound of someone just before they honk a lung oyster. I can listen to someone barfing with no problem while I am finishing my "grab a bite and go" lunch in the next room, though. Don't let it get to you.

[Hospice Nurse LPN, BSN, RN]

Could be the first clue.

I don't think so. Everyone has something that makes them gag. Mine is wounds....the big, nasty, Stage IV's. I've been known to offer co-workers cash to do a dsg change for me.

[Lovely_RN, MSN]

I hate doing trach care.

The worst experience I had was as a brand new LPN in a SNF. The patient had throat cancer and I swear he had the most copious secretions I have ever seen. At one point during the shift he formed a very long and thick strand of mucous that would ooze from one nostril then go back in. In my ignorance as a newb I was trying to get it out when his hospice nurse came in and told me to cut it with a scissor and not try to suction it out because it might be holding back a clot. Thank the Lord for my face mask because I almost lost it.

The second worst was a 1 to1 I had as a CNA. He was a suicide attempt who destroyed his esophagus by drinking Draino. The nurses gave me a suction catheter and I spent the entire day endlessly suctioning and wiping up mucous from his neck and chest area to keep him comfortable. Good times.

Every nurse has something that grosses them out.

[DC Collins, ASN]

For all you nurses, if cleaning up vomit makes you gag or almost throw up yourself, do you think that is a sign that you would never be able to handle being a nurse?

Someone mentioned Vicks. I recommend peppermint oil under the nose. If your facility doesn't keep any on hand, visit your local 'new age' shop, or other place that sells pure oils. It leaves a very pleasant odor with you for hours, and has yet to bother a patient with whom I have dealt.

DC :)