putting urine on burns? has anyone ever heard of this?

Nurses General Nursing

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My wife (an RN) told me that her boss (an NP) burned her hand (i'm guessing it was 1st degree) and then urinated on it. I'm guessing this is a wife's tail and searched online to find subjective proof that this works.... can someone shed some light on this... I told her it was a wife's tail and untill I'm proven otherwise do not agree that it helps with a burn. Thanks in advance.

Specializes in med-surg.

Just to confirm what mjlrn97 said...it is considered 'standard' first aid in the more tropical parts of the world to urinate on jellyfish stings. Urine is generally sterile and the ammonia in urine helps to relieve the sting.

Would this work with burns...I have no idea. Perhaps the principle is the same...I know ammonia works with insect bites.

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Specializes in Diabetes ED, (CDE), CCU, Pulmonary/HIV.

I think Ghandi drank his own urine.

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Specializes in Pediatrics, NICU, ER, PICU.

Ewww...I will stick to silvadene or neosporin...nobody is peeing on me for any purpose!! That's just nasty.

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Specializes in ED, ICU, PSYCH, PP, CEN.

I'm sticking with silvadene.

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Specializes in Onc/Hem, School/Community.

I forget the name of the show, but it's a show where two scientists debunk or confirm different urban legends. They experimented with 3 or 4 college students stung by jelly fish and found that it wasn't so much the urine itself, but simply putting fluid on the sting that seemed to help. The students felt little, if any, relief after urine was put on the stings. Having said that, it seems it would help, because all of the bee/ant/wasp sting "pens" are ammonia. As for burns, I grew up on the old wives' tale of putting butter on a burn.

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My wife (an RN) told me that her boss (an NP) burned her hand (i'm guessing it was 1st degree) and then urinated on it. I'm guessing this is a wife's tail and searched online to find subjective proof that this works.... can someone shed some light on this... I told her it was a wife's tail and untill I'm proven otherwise do not agree that it helps with a burn. Thanks in advance.

Yeah I heard of it, on FRIENDS!!! When Monica was stung by a jellyfish and Chandler and Joey peed on her!! haha.

No, really it is one of those survival things you can do, the ammonia in the urine will take the sting out, and that is why as a kid at the beach, the lifeguards had bottles of ammonia diluted with H2O.

:)

Pee away!!!! :lol:

Deb

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Specializes in cardiac/critical care/ informatics.

ok all i can say is yuck

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Specializes in Community, OB, Nursery.

It doesn't appeal to me, but if I were desperate enough I might try just about anything....

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Specializes in ER,OR.
My wife (an RN) told me that her boss (an NP) burned her hand (i'm guessing it was 1st degree) and then urinated on it. I'm guessing this is a wife's tail and searched online to find subjective proof that this works.... can someone shed some light on this... I told her it was a wife's tail and untill I'm proven otherwise do not agree that it helps with a burn. Thanks in advance.

First of all, soory my english, living in EU.

Anyways, i think there`s some true too.

Have anyone heard that if u get attacked of a (jelly fish?), the best way to help the burning is to urine on to the burning area. Could this be based on the same thing?

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I've certainly heard of using urine to rinse a burn or wound when a source of clean water was unavailable (like in a desert) and it was urgent to rinse the area. Standard survival first aid, I think.

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Specializes in school nursing, ortho, trauma.

When i was going through my fire academy training i had an instructor that an ex marine and really rough around the edges. One of my classmates was running across to meet us and tripped, earning a nice abrasion on his hand. The instructor said - do like i used to do in the war - go and pee on it to clean it up then get your butt back here! (of course he was a bit more crude). Like previously stated, urine is sterile so if somethings gotta be cleaned then and that was the only source.... still ewww - you're not gonna see me using urine therapy any time soon.

Have also heard of some skin creams containing Urea (derived from urine in some cases - usually a factory produced substance though).

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Specializes in ER/Trauma.
I think Ghandi drank his own urine.
Not Gandhi, but Morarji Desai (the 6th Prime Minister of the Republic of India):

He lived to the age of 99.

cheers,

PS: It's not "Ghandi" but "Gandhi". :)

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