What can you tolerate the least?

Nurses General Nursing

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I've heard that every nurse has their one thing that they don't like and grosses them out and they don't like dealing with. What is your one thing?

For me it would be vomit! I cannot stand vomit!

GI bleeds....I hate everything about them! The smell seems to just stick to you and lingers.

Don't care for tunneling wounds either.

And it makes me cringe when getting ABG's on a thinner person and you accidentally touch the structures surrounding the artery...it's like a crunchy feeling :barf02:

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I also do not like anything to do with the eyes.....I once saw an eye being harvested for transplant. Pretty gruesome procedure. I think especially so because the eyes are so personal and unique to an individual.

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Specializes in Critical Care; Cardiac; Professional Development.

Smells. I can look at and clean up just about anything. But horrific smells are my kryptonite. Poo, wounds, nasty feet, unbathed homeless, people who need mouth care.....all must be swiftly and efficiently dealt with. My cure for my gagging is to get everything washed and dressed and tidy. Love a nice clean dressing, a nice clean bed, a freshly cleaned homeless man who looks both bewildered and relieved at the same time.

The only other thing that has really gotten me was when a patient had oodles of skin flaking off their feet. It was all over the bed like snowfall. I could not stifle the feeling that it was in the air and I was breathing in fungal foot particles.

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Well I'm not hungry anymore :D.. Reading these makes me remember things I have experienced in a long time. Vomit, superpubic catch changes, trach secretions, bad decub. ulcers... I might be skipping lunch too :barf02:

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This reminds me of the time when I took a Q-tip to a snowed and intubated homeless patient's bellybutton. In the semi-darkness, it looked like the patient had an "outie" bellybutton. Several Q-tips later, patient had a rather deep innie... and a very aghast nurse.

:barf02: we have the winner!!

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Specializes in ICU.
This reminds me of the time when I took a Q-tip to a snowed and intubated homeless patient's bellybutton. In the semi-darkness, it looked like the patient had an "outie" bellybutton. Several Q-tips later, patient had a rather deep innie... and a very aghast nurse.

So funny I just sprayed tea everywhere... this and the comment about the very clean and bewildered homeless person... hahahaha.

I can't stand the smell of ileostomy stool. Vomit is gross, poop is gross, but that stupid ileostomy stuff smells like you put vomit and poop in a blender and microwaved it on high. It just comes out so warm and occasionally still chunky. That is definitely my least favorite smell. And I really can't stand being drooled on either! Hate hate HATE vent patients that when you go to turn them, you see the mile long strand of drool going from their mouth to the bed! So gross.

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Specializes in Med-Surg.

Vomit and phlegm! Anything from the mouth, really. I would rather have a GI bleed patient let loose a stream of stool on my shoes than have someone cough/sneeze/hack mucus on me! I HATE trach care for this reason.

Want me to clean your dentures? I throw a towel in the sink, close my eyes, and scrub/wash. Can't look at those food bits...

Got your sputum sample? I BEG the tech to collect it. I hate seeing it inside that clear tube. Yuck yuck yuck! And if it comes back contaminated with epithelial cells and we need to recollect, I will cry.

I cringe when I am questioning patients about their productive cough and they randomly show me their sticky goop wadded inside a Kleenex, or collected in a cup. I BELIEVED you when you said thick and tan, I don't need to SEE! Dear lord please warn me first...

If the patient vomits or even thinks they are going to vomit, my stomach instantly flip flops and it's a test of my willpower to hold a washcloth to their forehead while they hug the trash can. Afterwards it takes me a while to get appetite back.

The only thing I tolerate/kinda like is doing oral care (dentures not included). I don't know why but cleaning someone's mouth is a little satisfying. Maybe because I know it doesn't get done often, and patients really appreciate it.

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Specializes in Med-Surg.
So funny I just sprayed tea everywhere... this and the comment about the very clean and bewildered homeless person... hahahaha.

I can't stand the smell of ileostomy stool. Vomit is gross, poop is gross, but that stupid ileostomy stuff smells like you put vomit and poop in a blender and microwaved it on high. It just comes out so warm and occasionally still chunky. That is definitely my least favorite smell. And I really can't stand being drooled on either! Hate hate HATE vent patients that when you go to turn them, you see the mile long strand of drool going from their mouth to the bed! So gross.

OH MY GOD WHY? I will never be able to think of ileostomy output the same way again. It will forever be vomit + poop blended and microwaved on high.

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Specializes in Acute Care Pediatrics.

OK, the belly button story has literally made me queasy. Belly buttons are so gross, even at the best of times. LOL!!

I can do anything. I LOVE a good broken bone, the gnarlier the better. I also love packing a wound. Had a kid with a malfunctioning wound vac one night and the blood was clotting under the seal.... I literally took a giant lemon size clot out of that thing. AWESOME. Hee hee hee..... I work with kids so vomit does nothing to me. Poop, nada - although the smell of tube feed poop is a little ripe, I deal. I do not mind sputum at all as long as a kid is coughing it out. But the minute it comes shooting out of a trach? I'm done. DONE, I tell you. Trachs are my no no gross. And a trach with a nice infestation of pseudomonas? FORGET IT. That smell is like no other. Death smell is what that is.

Feeling queasy. :bluecry1:

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Specializes in CVICU.

Cottage cheese flowing from a nasty yeast infection. YUCK!

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Specializes in Acute Care Pediatrics.
Cottage cheese flowing from a nasty yeast infection. YUCK!

I will say that a nasty lady parts will turn my stomach. Had a psych patient who was shoving stuff in hers once. Had a ton of stuff just percolating up there. Threw back those covers to do a generalized assessment... and well, That's a smell you do not forget.

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Specializes in CVICU.
I will say that a nasty lady parts will turn my stomach. Had a psych patient who was shoving stuff in hers once. Had a ton of stuff just percolating up there. Threw back those covers to do a generalized assessment... and well, That's a smell you do not forget.

Yup, that stuff will turn my stomach more than the nastiest liquid C-Diff infested stool ever will.

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