Nybody else can deal with anything except vomit?

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Hello. i am less than 1 year from finishing nursing school. i would like to know if i'm the only one who can deal with anything but vomit! i haven't had to clean up a big mess yet but i'm not sure how i would handle that. I would be gagging all over the place. anybody else in my shoes? how can i get over this?

i'm also with you on that one, but the combination of vomit, blood and diarrhea has got to be the worst thing i've ever smelled. i haven't tried it, but some of my colleageus said that if you're wearing a mask, stick an alcoholo pad in it right under your nose and that helps a lot.

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I can't do the dry heaving thing. I only puked once and it was when I was cleaning up stool in a bedpan. It was just noxious. I have a hard time with smells. Like dishes that have sat for awhile. I smell them and then go throw up. There is sometimes that my husband has to do it. Yes, I know do the dishes as they are dirty, but oh well. The sunction is one of the worst too. This is why I can't do ICU. My whole ICU experience in nursing school was one hand sunctioning and turning my head. Oh, the whole coughing up stuff too. Just the sound. :) It only gets better!

Am with you on this one. I can deal with everything except suctioning and coughing up stuff. That noise makes me wanna puke. Jeez I hate trachs.

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Specializes in neuro, med/surg/, cardiac care.

you are sure not alone, and after nearly 20 years I still can't do it either. Not sure if it's the smell or the texture or what but yuck. Can handle cracked chests and open heart massage but not vomit? Strange but it must trigger something in the brain.. I put on a mask and that seems to help somewhat but often i have to actually turn my head so i don't get the visual. Lucky for me my kids weren't pukers , might have had to give them away, lol. Good luck!!!

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YUCK! I can not stand it. It makes me want to vomit when I smell it.

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Specializes in OB, NP, Nurse Educator.

I can clean up a pile of poop bigger than my head, a suction canister full of sputum and who knows what else fell off of the wall and it went down the back of my neck (and I was grossed out), and I clean up vomit - but I CANNOT hold the pan while the patient is throwing up. It is the sound that makes me sick - the gagging and that distinctive noise vomit makes when it splats - NASTY.

There have been a couple of occasions when the patient has been vomitting in the emesis basin while I held it, and I was throwing up in the trash can and the patient was too sick to notice! Even after 22 years my stomach occasionally turns completely over and I lose it. However it usually works out - one of my best friends can't suction trachs - so I do her suctioning and she does my vomit!

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Wow, I'm going to have a hard time with the vomit thing too b/c just reading this thread is making me feel a little icky. I agree with the poster who said it's more the sound it makes. I think I would be ok after it was done if I wore a mask or didn't look at it too much, but the sound that it makes coming up and splatting. Ugggh. I need a gingerale.

And I had morning sickness when I was pregnant with my daughter. I plan on having another one once I'm finished school and start working. I know I'll throw up if I have to hold the pan for a pt!:uhoh3:

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Believe me - you get over it. Back in my early years of nursing, I worked on a floor that gave chemo - I got used to the puking.

About the ONLY thing that grosses me out is nasty feet.

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Specializes in ER, Occupational Health, Cardiology.

Breathe through your mouth-an ERP taught me that when dealing with nasty multiple decubitii on a man who had nobody to check on him at home. With all that, he was incontinent, as well.:o

Anyway-I can do blood, brains, and guts, but seriously would rather not do emesis, and fer shure will nearly hurl myself with Code Browns!:eek:

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Specializes in Long Term Facilitly.

Can hardly do vomit..............and at times oral care really can bother me.

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Specializes in Med Surg, Hospice.

Vomit.. no problem... Poop... forget it... I'm gagging like crazy.... ugh...

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vomit, yes, and especially big gobs of stretchy, slimy sputum....makes my stomach turn just thinking of it...:barf01:not sure I'll ever get used to that one!!

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Specializes in Pediatrics.

thank you thank you thank you 110x for letting me know i am not alone in my phobia!

i've been deathly afraid of vomit since i was in... 4th grade... i

i'm fine with the babies and small kids who vomit, i've gotten past that, since the noises and everything they make is not as bad.

but around those that heave and gag and make those terrible awful noises it is just the absolute worst for me.

give me poop, blood, snot, drool, pus, etc any day of the week and i'm just fine.

i am a pretty new nurse so i know my day is coming when i'll have a kid puking all over the place, i just really hope that it's a younger one that i can handle.

just typing this alone brings on the anxiety...

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