Squeamish Students?

Nursing Students Pre-Nursing

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I'm a pre-nursing student, currently in a Microbiology class. I like it, and it's great!

In one of the labs, we were doing tests on vials of urine to determine if they have or don't have a possible STI or UTI. During this session, a fellow student of mine dropped her vial of "possibly gonorrheaic" urine onto the floor. It shattered into a billion pieces and left a puddle.

Everyone ran away

All 11 students in the lab (I'm #12) freaked out and wouldn't go near it. So I took it upon myself to put on some gloves and clean it up.

I guess I've got the advantage of not being squeamish about stuff, but I was really surprised at how afraid all the other students were of... urine.

I'm venting a little because I thought that fellow nursing students were built a little tougher, but I guess everyone else has their breaking points. We'll see how we all do on fungating tumors/necrotizing wounds, eh?

*whew*

Sorry. Been a long week.

I had a weak stomach prior to nursing school. I cannot tell you how many times I passed out when getting injections or blood drawn. I was told not to let it hold me back from pursuing a career in healthcare b/c you get over it. They were right.

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Specializes in burn ICU, SICU, ER, Trauma Rapid Response.
This is actually a weird class, regarding classmates. Not in this lab, but in Lecture there are 4 girls at one table that often admit that they're becoming a nurse so they can find a doctor to marry. I thought that this was just a joke on Allnurses, but it's real! Not even a secret ulterior motive, but an openly admitted career goal! While I'm ranting, I'm going to say that only two of them are probably cute enough to actually pull that of

*** Clue them in that more than half of dioctors graduating are female and this has been true for some time. Also doctors tend to marry each other, not nurses. The other thing is that they will get to really know doctors and the idea of marrying one will likely become a turn off for them. Most of the male resident won't be interested in nurses as marriage partners, but will be interested in hook ups with female nurses. Seen that like a thousand times.

In the last 10 years every example of MD marrying RN I have seen was female MD marrying male RN.

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I had a weak stomach prior to nursing school. I cannot tell you how many times I passed out when getting injections or blood drawn. I was told not to let it hold me back from pursuing a career in healthcare b/c you get over it. They were right.

Any tips for getting over this? I am not squeamish and do not have a weak stomach for any body fluid, including blood. I don't mind being elbow deep in anything lol. However, venipuncture and IVs are a different story. When I get my own blood drawn or an IV inserted, I break into tears and hyperventilate- despite being covered in tattoos I hate venipuncture lol. I get weak at the knees and woozy around IV insertions and blood draws. I've tried to watch as many as I can in clinical, in the hopes of 'desensitizing' myself. So far it has only had a modest effect. Will it just take time or is there something I can proactively do to get over this? I'd really like to move past this! I almost didn't go into nursing because of blood draws and IVs, because I know how weak I get at the thought of them. I love everything about nursing, I can't think of a better job in life! And I know this is a huge part of the job, so any advice would be greatly appreciated :)

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Not even a secret ulterior motive, but an openly admitted career goal!

And yes, there is tons of "I'm not going to deal with poo or pee or anything, but I want to work in L&D because babies are sooooo cute!!!"

Rant! Rant! I should have named this the Rant Thread!

Hopefully the uptick in female doctors means I might get to marry one.

Lmao! Because babies never poop, there's no blood in L&D, and doctors are actually so awesome that they bring patients their lunch trays, just like on Grey's Anatomy and Scrubs!
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Specializes in OB.

And not to mention when a perfect labor turns into a stat c-section and even when a baby doesn't make it.

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Any tips for getting over this? I am not squeamish and do not have a weak stomach for any body fluid, including blood. I don't mind being elbow deep in anything lol. However, venipuncture and IVs are a different story. When I get my own blood drawn or an IV inserted, I break into tears and hyperventilate- despite being covered in tattoos I hate venipuncture lol. I get weak at the knees and woozy around IV insertions and blood draws. I've tried to watch as many as I can in clinical, in the hopes of 'desensitizing' myself. So far it has only had a modest effect. Will it just take time or is there something I can proactively do to get over this? I'd really like to move past this! I almost didn't go into nursing because of blood draws and IVs, because I know how weak I get at the thought of them. I love everything about nursing, I can't think of a better job in life! And I know this is a huge part of the job, so any advice would be greatly appreciated :)

Venipuncture was my hardest one to overcome. I volunteered at a health fair drawing blood on a couple dozen people when I first graduated. I recommend this strategy! That was a turning point. Other than desensitizing by doing, I think you will find that you are too busy focusing on the patient's needs to allow your own discomfort to take over when you're the one actually doing the procedure yourself. Also, because it was such a phobia, I feel like a champ every time I stick a needle in a vein now. Just the thrill of overcoming the challenge makes it easier to poke people with needles. Just remember watching & doing are 2 different things; you may find it more manageable than you think. Good luck!

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Specializes in Med Surg.

I've only seen two of the students from my microbiology/A&P 1 & II courses in nursing school. And the stated reason for all of them in taking those pre-req science courses was to attend nursing school. (There is a 3rd student who I know was accepted to a different school). Altogether that makes four of us out of what? 115 students or something like that.

Many people don't know much about infectious disease and ignorance seems to breed hysteria. (They're supposed to learn at least a little of that in microbiology, but anyway...)

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It's something you do get over. I grew up babysitting for kids younger than myself, so the pee/poop/barf thing wasn't a huge shock to me. I'm totally fine hunting down veins on others. Getting my own blood drawn has turned into a not so fun experience. But that's the people involved more than anything.

There are things I don't love as a nurse. Urine on the floor will become almost nothing to you soon! Some of those classmates of yours are in for a surprise if they make it through nursing school. Urine becomes not a big deal. Eh, throw a towel on it to dry it up and then wipe the floor at the site of the spill. Poop also becomes less gross (I'm okay wiping bums and cleaning out bedpans - breathe through your mouth, c diff always makes me want to gag) but the coworker who had a patient spill poop all over her - that would still creep me out. Vomit bothers me - the sound of vomiting. That being said, each of us have something we are not as good at handling - for some of my coworkers it was the trach care that they couldn't handle. And sometimes (if possible) you swap tasks to help a pal out - ex I handle coworker's patient's trach care, coworker handles something I am not a fan of. Otherwise, as a nurse, you buck it up and bite the bullet, it needs done.

As for their salary expectations - they only wish. It does depend on the area. I did get relocation assistance for my current job. There are always "catches" to that stuff. For my relocation assistance, I have to work so long or pay it back. Sometimes, sign on bonuses can be indicative of issues with getting and retaining staff - always best to do your research about a healthcare organization and/or area to live before committing to anything.

Haha, and as for the docs? It's my experience from working the floor that 90% of the docs I encountered as a floor nurse were either already married and/or huge jackholes - not very personable people. The ones that were not those things were awesome but are few and far between. I've seen some MD/RN or DO/RN couples. Not as often as the MD/MD, MD/DO couples. Then there's the other category - the docs that marry people outside of healthcare.

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Specializes in ER trauma, ICU - trauma, neuro surgical.

Watch a couple of autopsies....you'll be made of iron after that.

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Thanks mariebailey and hodgieRN! I really appreciate the suggestions, and will try to find opportunities to do these! Hopefully they work for me :)

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The urine we used in microbiology wasn't even real urine!

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Specializes in Med Surg, PCU, Travel.

check out this site given by my medical terminology professor,they perform various operations and surjuries, its not for the faint of heart.

www.orlive.com

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