passing out

[sugarsweet21612]

this was my first semester of clinical, yesterday was my last before break. i have not had any problems like feeling faint AT ALL. yesterday i was doing a wet to dry dressing change with my clinical instructor and another student. the patient had terrible ulcers on her lower leg, and after we had removed all of the 4x4s, i started feeling very hot and light headed! i was surprised because i wasn't even really that grossed out or anything. i went and sat down in a chair in the room, in order to first of all, prevent passing out, and secondly, in hope that it would go away if i sat for a few minutes. after a few minutes when it didn't go away, i told my clinical instructor how i felt. she took me out of the room and put me in the nurses meeting room and got 2 other students to take care of me. by this point i was so hot that i felt like sweat was dripping off of me, i almost missed the chair, and my vision was really spotted. my friends luckily took great care of me, got me some cold water, a cold wash cloth, and some saltine crackers. after sitting for about 10 minutes i began to feel better, but i am just wondering if anyone has any advice about getting over this so it doesn't happen again. i just don't understand because i wasn't really THAT grossed out, and i don't understand because it only seemed to get worse AFTER i left the room. if anyone has any advice for dealing with this it would be highly appreciated!

[Jules A, MSN]

It can just be one of those things and from what I've heard even experienced OR techs will go down on occasion. Things that can help are eating breakfast, sucking on a sugar mint especially like a Hall's to off set smells and also pumping your calves to aid in blood return. Good luck.

[lilyteen]

Well, this is one of my biggest fears about becoming a nurse...the 'when-will-I-faint' terror. I haven't had this experience yet, but I am always worried that the day will come that I will not be able to stomach a certain wound or procedure and I don't know how I will ever deal with it should that day come.

[onyx77]

You are not alone! I have had this problem a number of times and it is not something that we have control over. There were times when I understood why I got that way (2nd semester - watching the first dressing change on a fresh skin graft. 3rd semester - in OR rotation twice in one surgery! - watching a male-sling insertion. 4th semester - watching a chest-tube insertion.) And there is the time when I don't know why in the world I got faint (4th semester - ER rotation - watching a hip reduction - this one actually landed me on a cott in a room per the ER Dr! How embarrassing! But the nurse I was working with that day made it into a GREAT learning experience - seriously!)

You may find overtime that when you are doing something yourself and not just watching it, that it won't affect you in the same way.

[Daytonite, BSN, RN]

If it's a vagal reaction to the patient's ulcers you'll get desensitized to it over time. Vagal reactions tend to happen to younger people and happen less as you age and desensitize as you see this kind of stuff again and again.

However, I have to tell you that as a young nursing student I also fainted over a patient. I got checked out by a doctor. It turned out I had a thyroid tumor that needed attention. You might want to consider checking in with a doctor for a check up as well.

[sugarsweet21612]

thanks so much for all the responses! i will definitely try sucking on a cough drop and i think i will also try using support hose under my pants. it's good to hear that it may go away with time... i was wondering if it was more of a reaction just because it was something i had never seen before, since i wasn't really that disgusted mentally. it just seemed once my body started, there was no stopping it! my mom is an LPN and also characterized it as a vesovagal reaction.

thanks everyone!

[hs2005]

I had the same thing happen to me semester while learning to insert a foley catheter. There was nothing gross about it but I had the same feelings of being light headed, dizzy and sweating. I think a big part of it was just the anxiety and pressure of doing something new with the instructor looking over you. I have made an appointment with my doctor though just in case because I have had problems with low blood sugar in the past. Hopefully we will get over it!

[User123456]

sounds like a hypoglycemic episode. i had one myself. and it was after changing a colostumy bag. i was like i made it thru the worse part whats going on. but then i did some research. candy helps but be sure to eat something befor clinical. i hate breakfast but i learned my lesson. take care hun!

[michelleicu]

Are you pregnant?

[texas2007, BSN, RN]

I had this happen to me in skills lab when our instructor was demonstrating how to start an IV on the dummy! After that disaster, I was SO nervous that I wouldn't be able to be a nurse because of this. Well, long story short, I've ended up sitting through many IV sticks and blood draws and am OK now. If I can overcome it, so can you!

[kukukajoo, LPN]

Did You check you BGMs?

[nightyngale]

Oh dear...I have a story and I'm still embarassed about it!

I was observing in the OP OR and was watching a lumpectomy in a 23y/o F's breast. No big deal, right? I was standing right beside the anesthesiologist and the pt was under general. I was fascinated and not grossed out whatsoever. Then, the surgeon started to cauterize and all of the sudden I started to get light-headed. I wasn't nauseated or grossed out, just light-headed. So, I walked over to the circulating nurse at the computer and talked with her for a bit, hoping it would pass. She asked if I was ok and I said that I was just a bit whoozy. She asked me to sit on a stool, but I said I was fine and walked over by the door and squatted on the floor. The waves kept washing over me, I was sweaty, and freezing cold. So, I sat on my bum, with my head on my knees. Next thing I know, three nurses are staring down at me and I'm thinking, "What the??? I'm not having surgery, am I?" I came to pretty fast and they wheeled me out in a wheel chair. SO embarassing!! :imbar :imbar

But, all the docs and nurses were amazing. Everyone came out and checked on me, including the docs, and told me their own fainting or near-fainting stories which made me feel so much better. The anesthesiologist insisted that I watch his next surgery to overcome it...I did, and I was fine.

It was the weirdest experience. But it happens to the most random people. I had had a big breakfast, wasn't locking my legs, and could think of no reason why I fainted...I'm still not sure.

Oh well, chalk it up to experience.