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.
Specializes in Oncology, ID, Hepatology, Occy Health.
Sputum is the one that gets me.
I worked on a respiratory unit with alot of adults with cystic fibrosis, who would have disgusting sputum; black on occasions. Worse was that the doctors used to like us to record if it was mucoid, purrulent etc. which meant examining the sputum cartons daily, and weighing their daily output. Foul!
Maggots, yes, I have seen them. Gives me the willies, as does any infestation: scabies, lice. I always start to itch afterwards.
But the worst is bubbly trachs. Ick! And the smell of a bad GI bleed. I have handles tons of other smells, but a GI bleed is the worst. It lingers too. Ugh!
Maggots, yes, I have seen them. Gives me the willies, as does any infestation: scabies, lice. I always start to itch afterwards.
But the worst is bubbly trachs. Ick! And the smell of a bad GI bleed. I have handles tons of other smells, but a GI bleed is the worst. It lingers too. Ugh!
Ok, the thing that gave me the willies, was when I was in nursing school I had a patient who had a FESS (sinus surg) and the dr came in and took his stents out. If youv'e ever seen that done its yuckkkk, blood was everywhere. But that wasn't the bad part, I had to irrigate his sinuses and teach him how to do it. It intailed using a bulb syring and squirting it in his nares ( how bad could that be? ) Haaaaaaa, thats what I was thinking untill blood clots came streaming out of his mouth!!!!!!!! GRRRROOOOssssssss, It was all I could do not to gag and I can't imagine how that must feel to the patients who have that done. I work in a hosp. now where we, thank the lord, don't do sinus surg! Another time on of the other students was discharging a pt when she bent down to help him tie his shoes and he threw up on her hair. Teee Heee! Well he didn't get to go home that day and she took a shower at the hospital!
Ok, the thing that gave me the willies, was when I was in nursing school I had a patient who had a FESS (sinus surg) and the dr came in and took his stents out. If youv'e ever seen that done its yuckkkk, blood was everywhere. But that wasn't the bad part, I had to irrigate his sinuses and teach him how to do it. It intailed using a bulb syring and squirting it in his nares ( how bad could that be? ) Haaaaaaa, thats what I was thinking untill blood clots came streaming out of his mouth!!!!!!!! GRRRROOOOssssssss, It was all I could do not to gag and I can't imagine how that must feel to the patients who have that done. I work in a hosp. now where we, thank the lord, don't do sinus surg! Another time on of the other students was discharging a pt when she bent down to help him tie his shoes and he threw up on her hair. Teee Heee! Well he didn't get to go home that day and she took a shower at the hospital!
DavidFR, BSN, MSN, RN
707 Posts
Sputum is the one that gets me.
I worked on a respiratory unit with alot of adults with cystic fibrosis, who would have disgusting sputum; black on occasions. Worse was that the doctors used to like us to record if it was mucoid, purrulent etc. which meant examining the sputum cartons daily, and weighing their daily output. Foul!