Odors--Help!

sissyboo · Mar 31, 2007

I don't have any trouble w/ odors--but I hear breathing through your mouth helps alot!

(I love your specialty--LOL!!)

Lorie P. · Mar 31, 2007

i carry a small jar of vick's vapor rub in my pocket and put just a little under my nose when i need something to block those odors. also wiping an alcohol prep under your nose works too.

TNNurse92 · Mar 31, 2007

Nurse Hobbit posted my suggestion: Vicks- I keep it with me!!

I_am_Julia · Mar 31, 2007

all i can say is that you sorta get use to it. that's one part of health care that i do not like.

how do you cope with all the odors in pt care? that seems to be the only thing that really grosses me out--eewww--gagging just thinking about it. i really have to get over this--but how?

Captain Tripps · Mar 31, 2007

They sell these little dropper bottles of breath freshener, minty fresh or something like that. Just a drop above your lip, works like Vick's without the horrible smell.

Peace,

Tripps

mandykal, ADN, RN · Mar 31, 2007

I think it would depend on what part of the body the odor is coming from.....My remedy is do what I need to do quickly and leave!!! lol...

There's a couple of odors I can't stand is emesis and c-diff.. God bless the staff CNA's...

TazziRN, RN · Mar 31, 2007

I can't stand the odor of unwashed bodies. I don't mean someone who hasn't been able to get to water for a few days, I mean the sickening odor that comes from the morbidly obese who don't bathe. It's different than the regular stinky armpit odor. For those I grab my trusty jar of mentholatum.

Love your handle, your amount of experience, and your specialty!!!

CANRN, MSN, RN · Mar 31, 2007

VANILLA!! Works wonders, I keep a small bottle of vanilla extract in my bag, if I get a stinky person, I just dab a little on my lip and walla, all I smell is vanilla. ALso, we had a REALLY STINKY person come in once with oozing nasty stinky wound drainage and used gowns, gloves, and sprinkled vanilla on our masks. Works wonders.!

JRapha'sRN · Mar 31, 2007

We keep some essential oils in the ED. When we have a particularly stinky patient we put a few drops on a cotton ball, stick the cotton ball in a med cup and put the med cup in the pt's room. This way the good smell helps everyone and not just those who put something under their nose. Of course, sometimes we have to do both, but normally just the essential oil in the room helps enough.

RNfaster · Mar 31, 2007

I smear peppermint oil under my nose and around it. It can leave my nose a little red, but it works great. (I like it better than my Vick's menthol tube, gum, and breath mints.) I also use some of the odor neutralizing spray in the room. And, when cleaning patients that are very messy and odiforous, I put a lot of the soap (doesn't require rinsing) on the washcloth.

If it's something really bad, I add a face mask. This helps block the smell (and keeps the peppermint oil in) and also blocks the view of my mouth if I gag. I sometimes also use the face mask when flushing and cleaning bedpans/commode pans so that the toilet spray and spray from the water I am using to clean doesn't hit my mucous membranes. (I think this is especially important if the patient has an easily communicable disease. --I recently picked up a gastroenteritis from work --and Ithink it was because I aerosolized some of the microbes while cleaning the commode pan. --I was not wearing a mask.)

EMTSNA · Mar 31, 2007

I find breathing through my mouth to be the most effective when dealing directly with the offending product. However peppermint spirits in a nebulizer and hung on the wall works wonders.