Things that make you go... ehhh errmm ack!

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I have a strong desire to become a nurse regardless of what I have to do but I can't help but cringe with I think of some things. You know the things that would have normal people turning pale. Which I may even be included in that catagory but I've never been exposed to such things and have only read about them. I plan to do what it takes to be a nurse any suggestions to desensitizing myself to things before I get to that point? Does anyone else cringe when thinking about taking care of a colostomy, cleaning feces, changing bed pans... etc... I know there are probably much worse things that I can currently imagine but you get the idea about what Im talking about. I thought about just attempting to find the most disgusting photos, and videos on the web and viewing them till they no longer make me cringe. Watching lots of discovery health channel seems to have at least made it easier to watch someone go under the knife. Ideas, comments, or suggestions?

I would much rather hear about purulent drainage (aww come on use the shorter version) than your suctioning secretions story. :lol2:

LOL! Really, it's right at the top of my Ick Stick. Throat goop totally blows any other drainage out of the water, so to speak ;)

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Specializes in Medical-Surgical, Hemodialysis.
LOL! Really, it's right at the top of my Ick Stick. Throat goop totally blows any other drainage out of the water, so to speak ;)

So to speak. :lol2: I have a friend that wants to be Resp. therapist and all I could think of was goopy loogies and what not's. :o

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So to speak. :lol2: I have a friend that wants to be Resp. therapist and all I could think of was goopy loogies and what not's. :o

Oh! You'll have to ask him/her a question for me: does your friend have "poop" at the top of his/her personal Ick Stick? :)

Seriously, EVERY RT I know canNOT deal with poop. I had one tell me he'd do anything to be at the other end of the body from that particular function, lol ;)

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Give me thick, sticky, tenacious loogies any day of the week. Don't have a problem cleaning up any 'normal' body secretions....but I gag everytime I have to help do a pelvic on a patient that has a STD........for me, GIB's are a walk in the park compared to that!

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Specializes in Medical-Surgical, Hemodialysis.
Oh! You'll have to ask him/her a question for me: does your friend have "poop" at the top of his/her personal Ick Stick? :)

Seriously, EVERY RT I know canNOT deal with poop. I had one tell me he'd do anything to be at the other end of the body from that particular function, lol ;)

Actually we were discussing career choices and she knew that she couldn't deal with that end and all of it's glory. :lol2: Needless to say our other Algebra classmates thought we were both insane.

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I have learned that if I can separate the action from the person, I am fine. So its not a patient vomiting, its a patient, and some vomit. Last night I rubbed a patients back while she retched and heaved and I wasn't really thinking much about it. I've only been a nurse a couple months. Its not that I got used to it, but that I separate it.

but if its a loved one I can't deal. I can watch a patient get stuck, I can stick a patient, yet I almost fainted when they started an IV on my husband.

Although I did get a great laugh a couple years ago--my daughter was sick and had vomited chunks all over a blanket. I told my husband to take the blanket outside, hose off the chunks and then I would wash it. Ok, so he takes it outside but its windy and he is having trouble spreading it down on the ground. So he lifts it into the air to try and shake it out....and the whole blanket--vomit side down--lands on his head! I thought I would fall over dead with laughter. Of course he came in retching and had to go take a shower lol.

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...but if its a loved one I can't deal. I can watch a patient get stuck, I can stick a patient, yet I almost fainted when they started an IV on my husband.

I need to give my 9 year old allergy shots once every 4 weeks, and THAT bothers me more than anything I do on anyone else!! This is my BABY. Of course, to make it worse, the very first time I did it at home (used to go to office, didn't make sense after awhile), I must have pushed it a tad too fast and it hurt. :bluecry1: I felt like the devil himself! After that I'm now so cautious it's a wonder I finish the injection the same hour I start it, lol....still, he prefers Mommy doing it than the office nurses :)

Although I did get a great laugh a couple years ago--my daughter was sick and had vomited chunks all over a blanket. I told my husband to take the blanket outside, hose off the chunks and then I would wash it. Ok, so he takes it outside but its windy and he is having trouble spreading it down on the ground. So he lifts it into the air to try and shake it out....and the whole blanket--vomit side down--lands on his head! I thought I would fall over dead with laughter. Of course he came in retching and had to go take a shower lol.

ROFL! I would've alternated retching and laughing....!

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Specializes in med-surg.

Two of the most gut-wrenching sights in the world (to me) occur outside of the hospital; those who "hack up a lung" within earshot, or the ol' "farmers nose-blowing" where he puts a finger to one nostril and shoots as far as he can. After seeing this, I can handle just about anything a patient can dish out (but the sputum hanging from the trach still makes me green.........)

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Specializes in med-surg.
I can handle most anything that most people would consider "nasty" but the truth is that it never really gets any less "nasty", you just get more used to it. I'm going to nursing school but I've been in the process of getting my CNA. Once you've seen poop once, it never really changes. Sometimes there's more, sometimes there's less. Same goes for most things. Once you've delt with it a few times, you start to get used to it.

Plus you have to figure that the reason you got into nursing into first place is to help people. Hopefully that's the reason you got into nursing. If you don't care about people or want to care for people then nursing isn't for you. I hate it when I see CNAs, RNs, or anyone else in the helth care field walking around with a pissed off look on their face all day because they don't want to be there, and being insensitive to their patients or residents. If you do want to help people, care for them, and take care of them, then you find ways to deal with the "nasty" side of the job. In my opinion the perks of seeing someone smile because you were especially nice to them that day far outweighs anything else that might be thrown at me. That's my two cents anyways.

Just know that you're helping to care for people and you'll be fine!

Just wait till you've got the bowel prep, non ambulatory ptient squirting for 8-10 hours, THEN come back and tell us it just poop.............:uhoh3:

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Specializes in NICU, High-Risk L&D, IBCLC.
...the ol' "farmers nose-blowing" where he puts a finger to one nostril and shoots as far as he can...

Oh, how disgusting is that! I was walking with my significant other down a side street going to the Third Street Promenade in Santa Monica.....TONS of people walking around and all of a sudden (when there was a clearing on the sidewalk, thank goodness) he blows his nose like this. I just looked at him and all he says is "what's the problem?" That's when I knew our on-our-best-behavior dating days were over.:cry:

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I'm still waiting to be admitted to a progam, so all of my experience with nastiness comes from people I know personally.

I do daycare and am very used to poop and kid vomit. No big deal.

My mom has bulbar onset ALS and I've had to clean around her PEG, clean around her trach, change her inner cannula, suction her throat and chest and even help wipe her fanny when she has a BM. I figure if I can do these things to my mom I can do them to anyone.

I think it's likely much harder to give that sort of care to someone you know than to someone you don't. It's harder to separate the action from the person if you're close to the situation.

That said, I plan on carrying Vapo-Rub with me once I start school!

Elisabeth

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Most things don't bother me. I had to suction my baby girl multiple times a day, vomit/BM doesn't phase me. I was thinking I'd be set for nursing school.

Now today I get my sutures taken out (had surgery on my arm on Monday for a lipoma). No kidding, I see her bring the scissors over, my head gets lightheaded, my stomach turns; I hear the scissors snip and I black out. It's not like it hurt, but I no kidding saw black. My first thought was am I going to make it as a nurse? Or am I going to pass out when I'm doing this to other people?

Why in the world did I black out?

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