Weak Stomach

FLArn · Aug 23, 2010

Everybody has something that gets to them. For some it's an odor or a sound, for others it's a visual something. With any luck you'll work with someone who can do what you can't and you'll be able to do theirs.

pedimac · Aug 23, 2010

Blood doesn't bother me, snot is fine, pulmonary edema spraying people in the face during a code is fine. But I don't deal well with poop, never have. When a patient gives me a particularly interesting sample, I gag a bit. I just breathe slowly and make sure I don't yak in front of my kids. The older ones that are awake usually find it amusing. Mind over matter, and get through it.

mamamerlee, LPN · Aug 23, 2010

Hahaha! When I was a freshman in nursing school, I was helping an old non-English speaking man remove his gown. When the smell of the crusted vomit on his chest hit me, I turned around and vomited in his waste can. That was the moment my instructor walked in! She got someone else to help the old man, and ushered me out of the room. On my eval, she suggested I might want to try a different career!!!

Fast forward 13 years, I was pregnant with my first child (now 25). I worked in acute dialysis. I would be holding up a basin for the patient to vomit into, while I was gagging over the trash can! Usually some one would come to my aid, and I would dash to the dirty utility room and throw up in there. Some of the other nurses who got pregnant in the 5 years I worked there went thru the same thing. We helped each other out whenever we could.

Very few things really ever bothered me. Best wishes!!

mississippigirl3000 · Aug 23, 2010

Thanks everyone, it sounds like it's pretty common and that I'll get over it. I love hearing all your stories

nursie nurse · Aug 23, 2010

i can handle suctioning a trach, no prob. i CANNOT handle hearing dry heaving! ugh, the sound gets under my skin and i pray for the patient to vomit just to put me out of my misery! Another thing that gets me is feet especially those on a homeless guy.......

DroogieRN · Aug 23, 2010

I've been a nurse for two months. I found out (the hard way) that my Achilles' heel is a GI bleed. I really do have a pretty strong stomach -- cleaning up a patient who has been incontinent really doesn't bother me too much, blood, wounds, trachs -- stuff like that is usually pretty OK with me. But I had a patient with a suspected GI bleed and I had to get a sample and wowza! First off, the whole floor reeked. The more experienced nurses knew it by the smell (and now I will never forget it) but I still had to get the sample. I wore a mask and it didn't even help disguise the odor. I was gagging, my eyes were watering, the whole nine yards! Thankfully, the patient wasn't anywhere near me to see my reaction. I did manage not to :barf02:but barely!

Music in My Heart · Aug 23, 2010

I used to be pretty squeamish but I've been getting desensitized. I find it helps not to look any more than I have to, to breath through my mouth when things are really foul, and to think clinically about what I'm dealing with.

chloecatrn · Aug 23, 2010

It used to be vomit. Now, I can almost handle anything.

anonymousstudent · Aug 23, 2010

:barf02:What is it that makes you have a weak stomach? Most people I know have issues with the SMELL. Sometimes I do. If I'm around the smell of deteriorating flesh especially. My trick is to start breathing through my mouth before I even go into the room, and not to stop until I'm out of the room and moved away from the area. This worked for me when I was helping change a stage 4 decubitus ulcer dressing. If it's the sight of it, you're going to have a much harder time. I'm not sure what to tell you there.

JSBoston · Aug 23, 2010

Necrotic wounds with infections!

It also doesn't matter WHERE I am... hospitals, public transit, the grocery store etc, BO and general body funk when people don't wash kills me. Ya know those patients who refuse all cares and like to sit in their filth? I'll take a trach filled with sputum or a poopy bed any day.

Finallydidit · Aug 23, 2010

When I was in NS I always carried "Vick vapor rub" in my pocket. A dab in each nostril worked wonders. Most of the other students at one time or another would come find me to grab a dab for themselves..

But to this day what still gets me, is not the odors, mucus, vomit, or code browns.. I really can't stand handling false teeth... Just seeing the slobber, bits of food, and crustys on them gag me every time... :eek: