I was working a night shift on a tele floor as a new Nurse.
We had this one poor old lady who was confused and was restrained as usual for her safety. She was our designated resident nightmare geri from hell, so she was placed near the Nurse's station.
So we are chilling out at the Nurse's station, chatting and trying to get through another night...
Suddenly, out of the corner of my eye, I see our lady in question standing in the dimly lit doorway of her room!
I instantly leap out and run to her. As I approach her, she appears to be falling towards me, so I meet her in a bear hug...my arms around her waste, and her arms around my shoulders.
As I catch the lady, I notice a very strong smell of feces, and I feel something warm on my hands, arms and shoulders...
My fellow heroes come in behind me, and as the lights are turned on, my worst fears are instantly realized.
Yes, I caught the poor old lady with a good old bear hung football catch, but I was also covered in the lady's feces.
As I look at her, she has feces smeared all over her arms and hands... (and even her face!)
I work ENT, so every day is pretty much gross. We've had a LTC resident with maggots in their ear--TWICE, but last week we pulled something out of someone's ear. Not sure what it was, but it had its Red Bull--that thing had wings! At least it was dead!
Specializes in CNA 8 yrs LPN 6 geri, chemical dependency.
While being walked through doing a tube feed, a very sweet, reasonably fed up patient said she'd been "on this damn bedpan" for thirty minutes and flung it all over my whiter than white, brand new, clinical uniform. Got to spend the rest of the shift in yellow -my least favorite color -3x scrubs. Bra in full view, pants constantly falling down. All 100 pounds of me. Ironically, Friday the 13th.
Starting nursing school in August, and have been so worried about having a weak stomach!! Having fun reading through these and it gives me hope that so many of you survived these "horror stories" and still love nursing!
Starting nursing school in August, and have been so worried about having a weak stomach!! Having fun reading through these and it gives me hope that so many of you survived these "horror stories" and still love nursing!
You will find that everyone has a weakness, and it is a great deal of fun to compare squicks and gross each other out. Every time someone says they can't handle sputum, I think of the med surg patient who was a chronic trach, admitted for pneumonia. That gurgling productive cough with nothing to muffle the sound... Ahh, memories
The smell, the look the texture, the cleaning up, being close and personal with the situation etc. This is another reason why I tell people who want to go into vet med to do some shadowing at a veterinary hospital. If the potential tech can live through the experience of pulling a decaying calf...well they might do okay.
Julius Seizure
1 Article; 2,282 Posts
THIS thread provoked that response!?