Ok, please don't laugh or deride me, but I'm wrapping up my first semester in an accelerated second degree BSN program. I've had four clinical days so far and in our program we fly solo from day one with one instructor for every 8 students backing us up if we have questions. On my fourth day working with patients, I had to walk out when another student asked for an assist cleaning up her patient who had a huge watery BM that was up his back, down his legs, up between his thighs and all over his genitals. I had just completely my third bedpan/clean up on my assigned patient, and the smell of my co-students patient was just too much. I turned green, nearly vomitted and walked out and found another student to help her. I knew poop was going to be a part of nursing and nursing school prior to starting this, but I didn't think the smell would kick my ass like it did on Wednesday. Does it get easier to deal with? It's not the sight, idea, or concept of cleaning it up, I don't feel gross, dirty or shameful like some people have said on this forum after cleaning up a patient. The smell just kicks my ass after a while. The three bedpans earlier that day were a cake walk, but something about this one was just too much. I need some advice and pointers. Thanks!
For me it's colostomy - I cannot take it. Even with a mask, I'm gagging in the mask - someone wanted to do an enema on a colostomy and I had to tap out, I started heaving just thinking about it. I give the above poster credit - just got tears in my eyes thinking about it again.
When it gets really bad, sometimes I'll step back for a minute (provided patient is safe) and take a breath/get my cool back.
I will say the only thing that I have a problem is, is a patient with unrelieved pain(cancer, dying, etc) and I cannot do anything to control it. It actually makes me sick to my stomach and makes me want to pass out sometimes. If its an alcoholic pancreatitis that was r/t them drinking, I could honestly care less..
OP, I am in exactly the same situation you're in, except mine is possibly worse. On several occasions, I have actually considered dropping out of nursing school and going to PA or medical school because crap smells (even without C. diff. being implicated/blamed), as well as the notion of cleaning up after crappy situations, bother me so bad. Having said that, thanks to those of you who have offered up simple & quick "fix-its" for drowning out the smell.
So, to re-cap the suggestions offered so far: 1.) Wipe Vicks/essential oil directly on the outside of the nares; 2.) Wipe Vicks/essential oil on the outside of a mask and wear another mask on the outside of that one; 3.) Place a teabag between 2 masks.
Those are great suggestions, but does anyone have any additional ones to offer?
I sincerely want to thank the OP for posting this thread and to everyone else who offered suggestions. We had our first clinical day last week and I left thinking that maybe this is not the right profession for me. I simply could not stomach the smell of poo. One of our patients had a colostomy bag that had to be deflated several times and emptied and another had diarrhea. The other student nurses complained but handled it fine. I, on the other hand, had to leave the room and work to keep my eyes from watering. I've been trying to work myself up for our second day and ran across this thread. What a Godsend. I'll definitely be utilizing all of the suggestions. Thanks again! :)
Don't drop out. It gets better. Regular old poop, diarrhea, and even a touch of C.Diff barely make me flinch these days. I did about puke emptying an ostomy bag on Monday, but hey, still beats pushing paper around an office at my old job and spending my days on the telephone handling auto claims. Really though, the poop thing has gotten better, I haven't even used a mask in a while, but yeah, still not my favorite thing in the world. Thank God I had a bunch of walky-talkies yesterday, because Monday was Poop-City. Oh yeah, quick update, I'm not a student any longer. Graduated with a BSN last week. I've been working as a tech for the last year, and with any luck and a ton of studying, I'll pass the NCLEX at the end of June. I already have a job lined up, so it's study, study, study for me right now.
At least I've got one thing to thank my 40pk/yr smoking history for- I can tolerate an amazing amount of bad smell. Thanks for the idea of vicks/oils on the mask, not on my nose/face. Most of these oils break me out like poison ivy.
I'm not sure on the country your practicing on, but are adult diapers not allowed by the institution? (provided the client is geriatric). I work at the ED and we get these types from time to time. I ask the client AND the relatives if they would be willing to give an adult diaper a try. There a sense of a shameful stigma accompanied with the adult diaper but with all the trouble of cleaning and taking a dump over and over, the client usually goes for it , for his sake as well. Clean up is easier, smell is more...manageable somehow and you avoid catastrophe with an absorbent sheet underneath the patient's orifice.
I remember one time, I had an 80 pt who wanted to take a dump at the toilet which was a couple of steps away. He won't take no for an answer and would rather just die than use an adult diaper. Of course, I told him that I would help him out with a bed pan instead but everything went in a blink of an eye, he jumped over the bed railings and ran (in whatever way an 80yo could) towards the toilet. I managed to dash to him as he was about to trip, catching him from his shoulders and caught him as he was going down on his knees letting out a moan on his way down.
And then it happened. I felt something liquid and warm gash from my thighs down to my legs as I was pulling him up. His back resting against my chest and his orifice on my thighs. I couldn't help it. Two words came out of my mouth: "Oh..sh*t..." in a somber, almost lazy tone.
My junior, a couple of meters ahead of me had her jaws dropping and as if she was frozen in disbelief. I was stunned as well, so is our doctor. There was a few seconds of uneasy silence in the department. Then I came to.
"Quick! throw me the blanket!", I called out to my junior.
That grabbed her back to reality and hastily threw the blanket in my general direction. I caught it with my right hand while my left arm supported the patient and used it to cover his orifice and sat him down on the mono-block chair near us. Quick thinking, but not quick enough. The patient gave another moan. Soon brown watery foulness rushed out of his orifice like water on a fully opened faucet. Lucky for the watery stool, the monoblock had holes under it, allowing safe passage for the brown gunk.
All hell broke loose! The area around the chair was literally flooding!!
Oh man! Only 20mins and my night shift ends there. That's what I would really call, seconds from disaster!
mrnightinggale
112 Posts
I don't mind talking about it at all. It is the witnessing it in person, with all of the E. coli present that grosses me out.