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.
Wow, this is such a great topic! I'm starting Nursing School in 2 weeks, and this prepares me, so maybe I will be a little less freaked out/disgusted by some of the stuff mentioned... I've only read 7 pages and by the 7th page I feel less nauseous than I did a few pages before. Thanks and keep it coming. Maybe by the time I finish reading this thread I'll won't be nauseous reading this at all. :) And then comes the seeing...
Nothing freaks me out but, I did make a female co-worker nearly vomit once.
I showed her what she thought was a swab culture from a particularly well known and much discussed wound, which I promptly ate in front of her. "Umm, tastes like chicken", I said. It was peanut butter!
I have not everything.. but so far; Really bad cdiff mad me gag (good thing i had a mask on and didnt make any noise) and trach suction is just.. EW. Teeth falling out bothers me.. And Dont even get me started with maggots. IF/when i ever experience a situation with maggots, i might loose it.
yikes!
Kuddos to everyone for experiencing/dealing with there "heeby geebies"
Nothing freaks me out but, I did make a female co-worker nearly vomit once.
I showed her what she thought was a swab culture from a particularly well known and much discussed wound, which I promptly ate in front of her. "Umm, tastes like chicken", I said. It was peanut butter!
Two years later she married me!
Ha ha, so funny! I'm surprised she married you after that! :)
Can't stand eye injuries. Active Eye bleeds, anything like that. My brother lost his eye in an accident years ago when we were kids. can't handle eye injuries, and I make that known to my employer. It's only happened once, in seven years at my facility, while i was on duty. Thank goodness.
I'm a Pulm nurse so mucous, loogies...doesn't bother me at all. I can suction a trach with the best of 'em all the while thinking about what's for lunch. But start talking about bugs....maggots, cockroaches, worms...that gives me the heebie jeebies. Only had maggots on a patient once and I nearly passed out. But the wound beds where the maggots had been were amazingly clean, good granulation tissue, no necrosis!
I also have a problem with measuring and flushing vomit, especially if it's chunky. I have dry heaved in more patient bathrooms than i want to think about.
And I did have a patient that was NPO except for the big jug of Golytely that she was supposed to be drinking a glass of every 1/2 hour. She also had a horrible food addiction. She got ahold of the jug when I was out of the room and chugged it all. Then proceeded to poop, everywhere in the room. It looked like a murder scene, but with poop instead of blood. She over-flowed the toilet, covered it actually. I threw a towel on the floor to cover a lake of poop to get to the toilet and when I tried to step over the towel, I ended up skidding across the floor on the towel and poop. I went over the the patient and she had it smeared all over her body, and was just sitting in it. By the time I was done I had multiple poopy handprints covering my isolation gown. Needless to say, I didn't eat lunch that day. All my co-workers still laugh about that day.
Gee, now I'm starting to think...just why did I become a nurse?
I'm pretty hardy when it comes to nursing 'grossies' but here are a few of mine:
1. COFFEE GROUND EMESIS. Actually, any kind of emesis.
2. SPUTUM. Especially having to collect a sample from a trach. I seriously gag.
3. Trach's in general bother me. That whole 'area'; the larynx, trachea, cricoid cartilage... just gives me the serious WILLIES and makes me just cringe. Even on myself, that whole area bothers me. I don't touch it.
4. Long, dirty fingernails.
5. Dentures that need a SERIOUS brushing.. I swear, denture care is NOT just plopping them into a container with water and Polident! Please remove the caked on food from them too!
And one more, I am a huge advocate for the use of skin moisturizer cream! I loathee when a poor patient's freshly changed sheets are covered in a dusting of dry, dead skin that flaked off on it.. EW!
I'm a Pulm nurse so mucous, loogies...doesn't bother me at all. I can suction a trach with the best of 'em all the while thinking about what's for lunch. But start talking about bugs....maggots, cockroaches, worms...that gives me the heebie jeebies. Only had maggots on a patient once and I nearly passed out. But the wound beds where the maggots had been were amazingly clean, good granulation tissue, no necrosis!
Were the medical maggots? I've heard of maggots being used to help with unstageable decub's and other kind of deep necrotic wounds like that.
And hey, I'll come deal with your bugs and you can come take of of my sputum samples and trach suctioning! I can't even eat after that, let alone THINK about lunch while I'm in the act...
I work NICU which is so much better than adults for many reasons...... not the least me which is the gross factor. Of course we do have blood/pus/stool leaking ostomies and infected fishy trachs. And that NEC smell....... But the silly thing that totally gives me the willies is removing an umbilical line. It's just so long and scary. I just want to grab my own belly when I see it coming out. You can't look away! You have to make sure it is intact!!! Lol.
I work NICU which is so much better than adults for many reasons...... not the least me which is the gross factor. Of course we do have blood/pus/stool leaking ostomies and infected fishy trachs.
But the best part is that neonates are lighter and of course the volume of all bodily fluids/secretions is so much less than adults!
RPN_2012
259 Posts
Wow, this is such a great topic! I'm starting Nursing School in 2 weeks, and this prepares me, so maybe I will be a little less freaked out/disgusted by some of the stuff mentioned... I've only read 7 pages and by the 7th page I feel less nauseous than I did a few pages before. Thanks and keep it coming. Maybe by the time I finish reading this thread I'll won't be nauseous reading this at all. :) And then comes the seeing...