Squeamish future nursing student

LaterAlligator · Mar 1, 2015

You get used to it, with time. I used to have a blood/needle phobia, to the point where I actually passed out when getting my own blood drawn, more than once. It's different, at least for me, when there is a real person depending on you. Responsibility overrides my willies, to the point when I've been ok even when a dementia patient who was getting a blood transfusion pulled out her IV catheter and painted her bedding and face with that unit of blood! It was disgusting, but I knew she needed me. So I was able to suck it up.

hope that helps! Start small, watch YouTube educational videos, maybe, on the stuff you hate, to begin with.

vanilla bean · Mar 1, 2015

It's not necessarily a deal breaker as long as you choose to continue to push through and deal with it. I work with a nurse that is regularly the butt of jokes (all in good fun) for his sensitive gag reflex and that he has had to excuse himself to vomit on more than one occasion. I was even once participating in a code when one of the nurses ran to a sink to vomit. As long as it's not a deal breaker to you and does not interfere with patients getting the care they need, I say suck it up and see how it goes. Many (if not most) people become quickly desensitized to the more "yucky" aspects of the job.

LessValuableNinja · Mar 1, 2015

I'll impart on you a trick I learned my first day of clinicals. The instructors thought it would be amusing to have me, as my first experience with a patient, debride a decubitus ulcer. If you don't know what this smells like, consider a hot August day, your garbage can, and about 20 pounds of rotting meat in that garbage can, then spending 20 minutes digging around the garbage can with your head in it and flies buzzing around. That's about what it smells like. After watching me squirm for a while, one of the instructors taught me a life (and gut) saving trick: Take a surgical mask, and spray or wipe a little bit of mouthwash on the inside. Makes an amazing difference. Other than that.. as others said, you just get used to it.

I've met some people who put a bit of menthol chest rub on their upper lip and nostrils. Keeps you from having to wear the mask. I don't think it works as well, but it still helps.

Also works for diapers :) I have a step son that wasn't potty trained for the first year I was around, and lemme tell ya, that boy can put out a stinker.

mecapon91 · Mar 2, 2015

Thanks everyone! I have always wanted to be a nurse so I don't want this to get in the way of a dream! My brother is a paramedic and he kind of gives me mixed thoughts on how I will do with this. Honestly last week with the horrible diaper...I'm not sure if it was the sight or the smell. Maybe both. My brother always told me to double mask with toothpaste in between...But now I'm worried about the visual stuff...I am hoping that over time I will get used to it.

bsnprg · Mar 2, 2015

Shadow a nurse and after completing the prerequisite courses you'll have enough scientific reasons on how to view a human body including its secretions...

Before I started nursing school, I had not seen a patients' blood, BM, and yadi yadi ya...so on my first clinical rotation my instructor took me to an IV drug user's room where the wound nurse was cleaning his multiple wounds he had on both arms. He had two lines (drains) coming from his wounds the bags attached to these lines were literally full of blood. It was October and the room was filled with sun shine , I don't know if I was sweating... But I felt like it was a 100 degrees and I almost passed out... The whole room was spinning around me . When I left the room, I went straight to the bathroom sat down, closed my eyes and thought I was dead... I am so glad that I had that experience because I totally overcome being squeamish ....

Now that I think about it, I almost laugh at myself.... Now I debride a wound and love to see it heal in front of my eyes ...of course after loading the patient with narcotics... The only way to overcome your phobia is to face it!

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bsnprg · Mar 2, 2015

By the way I was in Early Childhood and Family studies before coming to nursing.

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PacoUSA, BSN, RN · Mar 2, 2015

Lmao! I used to be deathly afraid of blood ever since as a kid I saw another kid's foot slashed from a broken beer bottle in the water at the beach. Now I am hardly ever phased by it (unless it's a murder scene so thankfully I am not in CSI or anything lol). Nurses always have that one thing they never get used to, and mine is actually trachs and sputum. Thankfully I rarely see those nowadays.

Don't let stinky poop stop you! You have other things to worry about!

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datalore · Mar 2, 2015

I'm *not* squeamish in the slightest, and I've felt a strong urge to gag a few times from smells! On those occasions, I've turned just my head away for a moment, took a deep breath of slightly fresher air in and out, and recovered. No one notices, they're watching/doing other things. A five second 'escape' like that can be super helpful.

Examine49 · Mar 2, 2015

I always say that vomit makes me vomit.

HouTx, BSN, MSN, EdD · Mar 2, 2015

Have you ever heard of the expression "familiarity breeds contempt"? It just means that whenever you see something new or different, your senses react in a much different way than they do when you see something that you are very used to. When you encounter an new odor, you're immediately aware of it as your brain tries to sort it out. Over time, you may not even notice it.

This is why they deliberately add icky-smelling chemicals to the products of a refinery... so that people living in the area will notice if there is a leak because they have become 'nose-blind' to the usual smell. Heck, have you ever walked into a multi-cat house and been knocked sideways by the pervasive litterbox odor even though their owner doesn't even notice it? Same phenomenon.

It works sort of the same way in patient care. The first few times you encounter a noxious stimuli, you'll definitely notice it. You may gag and feel barfy at first. This can be a real problem, because patients are extremely sensitive to how we react ... it is humiliating for them to be the source of something so awful that it makes people want to vomit. But after repeated exposure, you'll be able to maintain your 'nurse face' throughout. This calm and competent acceptance is enormously reassuring to your patient.

That being said, even us crusty old bags usually have a waterloo. For me, it's loogies --- thick blobs of mucous coughed/spit/snorted from ENT openings. I'd rather clean up after an active GI bleed than deal with that stuff. Oh - and pickled beets... even the sight makes me nauseous - LOL.

You'll be fine.

mecapon91 · Mar 2, 2015

Thank you all so much! I just knew I could not give up this dream because of a fear of vomiting. My brother is a firefighter/paramedic and seem mixed. He always tell me how I will see all this gross stuff and that I need to know I can handle it. It just made me really nervous. But hearing that you can get over this makes me feel a lot better. The idea of throwing a dream away just because I'm squeamish about certain things really hurt. As an EMT I got over IV's after almost fainting once (the nurse was really nice to me) and handled a bad car accident well. Just worried about gagging and vomiting over something. lol

Thanks again :)))