What is the grossest thing that's happened to you???

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I really want to know what is the grossest thing that has happened to you as a nurse. Has poo or vomit flung at you? I'm super curious. Thanks to all ^_^

Specializes in Med/Surg, Ortho, ASC.

I was watching out for a co-worker's patients while she went to lunch, so I was running around like crazy. One of her patients, an elderly man, needed the bedside commode urgently so I got him on it, gave him the call bell and went to give pain meds to someone else. When his light went off, I got to the room (double occupancy) as soon as I could. I don't know what hit me first, the smell of the diarrhea or the sound of the roommate moaning "get it out of heeere!"

The smell was a godawful wall that I had to walk into. I got washcloths, etc. (before the advent of wipes) and did a reasonable job of getting the patient clean and back to bed. By the time he was comfy back in bed, even he was moaning "get it out of heeere." I got the steaming contents of the toilet into the hopper and went to return the toilet bowl to its base. That's when I noticed that some stool had splashed (somehow??) onto the floor.

Now this was back in the day when HIV was just coming into focus and some pretty strange practices were in force. Including the rule that whoever had the highest level of education (i.e., knowledge of safe practices) had to clean up bodily waste. So calling housekeeping was out of the question. I had to first remove all evidence of the waste, and then call housekeeping to do a final mop. I dropped to my hands & knees with more wet washcloths and ducked under the frame of the bedside toilet. Scrubbing away, I felt a drop of something hit the back of my head. Instinctively, I whipped my head around to see what was dripping. Caught the next drop of diarrhea in my eye.

Fortunately, my co-worker was back on the floor in time to hear me shriek and covered my patients while I spent the next 15 minutes at the eyewash station, then washed my hair the best I could in the staff bathroom sink.

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I would have politely asked if he still had some of his lollipop stuck in the V of his fingers!!!

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Specializes in CMSRN, hospice.

I've worn other people's urine and gastric juices, which isn't my favorite thing. I'd have to say the nastiest thing is when people play in their poop. Had a lady who would smear it on the wall and then call us in to clean it off. >_

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While working as a community nurse for a mental health clinic, some staff and clients were sitting around a therapist's office just having a friendly little discourse. One elderly client pulled out her top dentures, ran her finger around the palate indentation, scraped off some residue, popped her finger into her mouth and proclaimed, "Mashed potatoes!"

Dentures are my kryptonite. There was a patient who was a post-op exploratory lap. She had started to vomit into the trashcan, then made it to the toilet. Her wound had dehisced during her vomiting. As she was being taken back to the OR, she informed us that she had lost her dentures while vomiting.

I was assigned the task of finding them. I found the bottom dentures in the vomit filled trashcan. Then I put on a [too short] glove to feel around the toilet as the vomit-toilet water filled my glove.

Turns out she had the top ones in her mouth the whole time. They were in a clean denture cup, courtesy of the OR nurses.

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This happened to a coworker of mine. At a group home a resident lost a turd that fell out of her pants onto the floor. Another resident picked it up and brought it to my coworker. The coworker put her hand out and the resident but it in her hand. My coworker then quickly realive what it was.

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Specializes in ICU; Telephone Triage Nurse.

* New grad: I had a woman who had a Q AM enema ordered (and she enjoyed it a little too much ... ewww - shudder). She assumed the position in the shower ... I caught back spray in the face ... (ralph, hoik, yak) ...

I left the room screaming (retching) and scrubbed my face over and over with a surgical betadine scrub brush intended for pre-op surgical hand/nail scrub prep. My face was shiny clean and raw for over a month.

23 years later I still feel violated ...

* 5 years into my RN career I had a patient with a severe decubitus ulcer at her sacrum ... She was incontinent of stool , but that's not the worst part: the purulent drainage of the wound smelled of feces.

You had to be super careful during a dressing change to the tunneling wound, because if you weren't you could cut your hand on her lumbar spine, as the spinous process was very sharp.

In order to properly pack the wound it required you shove your hand/fingers deep into the tunneling wound while packing gauze rolls soaked in Dakin's solution. We wore masks soaked in oil of winter green, but a little over 18 years later I can still taste that wound on the back of my tongue.

* The biggest turd l've ever seen: 2 Yeats into my nursing career I had a woman about as tall as she was wide - a so confused! She wanted to poop, but the bed pan wouldn't do it for her ... I got her up to the bedside commode, gave her a newspaper - then gave her some semblance of privacy (she read it upsidedown) ... The commode was filled with every conceivable texture of stool - from hard pellets, to lose liquid. It coiled like a snake around d the curvature of the commode bucket right to the top. She was literally FOS.

She was happy when she finished - 30 minutes later, while I fetched and braved cleaning the bucket (wondering of anyone would notice if I just threw out the bucket - contents and all)?

My 5 year old son demanded that story for years afterwards (and I wondered if he too would be a nurse).

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I was going to roll change a woman with dementia who slept with no underwear or depends on. She had a bm in bed and it was very messy, and as soon as I peeled back the covers she took a finger and smeared in through her poop and genitals and then stuck it in her mouth.

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Specializes in ICU; Telephone Triage Nurse.
I had a trach pt who was in our unit d/t Pseudomonas. If you've ever had a pt with Pseudomonas, it has a distinctly bad odor. Normally, when I'm suctioning a trach with an open system, I wear a face shield. During the shift, the pt started desatting. I was in another room and ran over to this patient. Needed immediate suctioning, no time to put on the face shield. Had to act quick because they had a mucous plug. So, I managed to get out the mucous and when I pull it out, the pt coughed through the trach.

SPLAT!!!

A big, huge, green, nasty, smelly splatter of Pseudomonas-infected mucous gets on my shirt, chest, neck, chin and I could feel that droplets of it were on my face. UGH!!!! I used the disinfecting wipes, but the damage was done. I ended up getting Pseudomonas because of it. I was sick for over a month. Not fun at all. That was the grossest thing. I can still remember that awful smell and the sinking feeling when it happened.

When I was pregnant the 2nd time around I had a miscarriage, but in terms of sickness it was the hardest 9 weeks if my life. Morning sickness is such a misnomer - it should be called any time sickness.

One day I was assigned a morbidly obese patient who had a permanent trach but he got a really bad URI and was admitted. It was pseudomonas - and I knew it the moment I was within 10 feet of his room even before the C&S came back. Once you smell it you NEVER forget that sickening sweet rancid odor. EVER.

I felt so embarrassed (he was such a sweet man) ... every time I walked into his room I held my breath as long as I could, but eventually I had to breathe and I kept retching. We both kept apologizing to each other over and over.

And suctioning that shimmering, neon green sputum was enough to do me in. It seemed to be a never ending mucous cache.

He'd cough a wet cough - expelling the inner cannula and a handful of fetid neon green purulent sputum into his hand. Poor man.

By the 2nd day of this assignment I was ready to go home sick, but a kindly agency nurse took pity and switched patients with me. I wanted to bow down and kiss her feet!

I had taken care of her dying mother a few months earlier and apparently she felt extreme gratitude for that care. I felt extreme gratitude for her compassion and kindness (yes - those qualities still exist in this world). We were just a big mess of mutual gratitude!

18 years later that agency nurse is fondly remembered for doing me a genuine solid. At the time I was running to the bathroom to vomit due to "morning sickness" several times a day on even a good day - but pseudomonas was my pregant woman kryptonite.

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Specializes in ICU; Telephone Triage Nurse.
Had a geriatric male patient who I swear, as he stood by his bed, aimed and shot his loose stool at my leg.

:roflmao:

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Specializes in as above.

we are bored aint we nurses..lol

my experience was when a new dad watching his wife giving birth, and told his wife..

WOW, you have a big CxxT.

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Specializes in Geriatrics, Dialysis.

I was helping an elderly lady put on her shoes. This lady had been up until that very moment feeling fine. While I was kneeling in front of her she became out of the blue violently ill and vomited all over the top of my head. This was less than an hour into my shift. That is the one and only time I showered at work.

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Specializes in Geriatrics, Dialysis.
Had a geriatric male patient who I swear, as he stood by his bed, aimed and shot his loose stool at my leg.

We had a lady like that. I swear she could aim a stream of liquid stool at the staff she didn't like with great accuracy. There was one CNA in particular she got so often he finally learned to step well to the side when rolling her over away from him. Of course then housekeeping wasn't too thrilled as the poop that was aimed at him landed on the bed curtains instead. Thank goodness she seemed to like me!

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