Okay, people. It's time for a nice, fun, light-hearted discussion to blow off some steam.
WHAT FREAKS YOU OUT? What bodily fluid can't you STAND? What wound gives you the absolute WILLIES? It doesn't matter if you're an ADN, BSN, LPN, CNA, PQRST, ABCDEFG...every body gets the heebie jeebies over SOMETHING...even you stomach-of-steel ER nurses!
Mine is eyeball injuries/surgery...aaaaaaaaackkkkkkk!! Gross! Makes my skin absolutely CRAWL. Or when someone gets a little cut on their finger/toe/whatever and then squeezes it to make it bleed!! Bleah!! Then there's the ever-popular RESPIRATORY SECRETIONS. I can handle poop, pee, amniotic fluid, lanced boils, pus, whatever...but give me a nasty snot-filled trach, and I'm OUTTA THERE.
This is a great topic. There are two things that make me weak in the knees and light headed. Everytime I see one of these done I feel like I am going to pass out.
The first is a Bone Marrow aspiration. I can't even watch the Doc while this procedure is being performed. It's good for my patient because I am totally focused on them.
The other is reduction of fractures. Okay, lets be honest any type of fractured bone gives me the willies if I see it before it has been set.
Of course the two grossest things I ever saw both involved snot. The first was while I was in Nursing school. A medical student and I were taking care of a patient. The patient had a large snoot dried just inside of his nostril. The medical student was trying to help him remove it and when all conventional methods failed the medical student reached up with his own fingers and pulled it out himself. I had to leave the room, and even the the thought of it makes me sick now.
The other was while I was pregnant. A post op patiet with atelectasis presented me with a giant loogy as if it was the greatest gift ever. I took one look at it and almost vomited on the patient. I am not sure who was most embaressed.
3rdShiftGuy, I can do post-mortem on any body that you want, even the ones who appear to be half-biodegraded before they pass. But I can't handle dead animals!!! Our cat brought in a mouse as a "present" last week and I freaked!!!:imbar
The absolute worst thing for me is vomit. I warn all of my patients that if they upchuck, so does the nurse; so they better let me know right away if they are nauseated so I can medicate them before they lose it. (When our kids were little, my husband had to clean up any vomit because he knew I'd also barf and only make a bigger mess. Of course, the kid with the weakest stomach was in the upper bunk and that was always fun!)
This is definitely my biggest fear. I can't even watch movies (hands over my eyes and ears too if possible) where there is vomitting.
I do like this topic though, it makes me realize that there are many others that feel the same.
I think it might be safe to say that with all I have to look forward to, I'll probably lose weight, especially since I will be sure not to eat right before my shifts.:imbar :imbar
What I can't stand is to see my own blood, or detect blod leaving my body. To see my blood leaving me drop me everytime. I don't know if giving blood will kill me, because they always stopped it.
I can stand to see everything, except my brother or sister's autopsy if they died. thats morbid but the truth.
:imbar ...SPUTUM!!!!! can do anything else, can cath the smelliest crotch, can do bowel care all day long, and love wounds, even the gangrenous ones.. but sputum gets me every time!!!
ok...an update...i am much better with sputum now...have a hypothetical client with a gaping neck hole..AND a separate trach...visible internal neck structures...anyhoo..there's always oropharyngeal goo on the dressings....
This is such a great topic! I'm still a student, I can't wait to see what I'm in for! C-diff really skeeves me out but other than that I can handle smells and poop and stuff. I love watching plastic surgery on the Discovery channel but facial surgery (eye lifts, face lifts) grosses me out because it looks so painful!
I have a thing with ticks... I cannot take them off myself of my animals!!! I have to have someone else do it!! This summer I had to take my son into the ER and embarrasingly ask the doc to do it for me!!! EWWW!!! its just nasty!!!
But I can't handle dead animals!!! Our cat brought in a mouse as a "present" last week and I freaked!!!:imbar
lunakat
369 Posts
Chest tubes weird me out, but I can't stand the sound of someone vomiting. The vomit isn't a big deal just the noise makes my skin crawl.:imbar