What makes you want to vomit?

[madwife2002]

I have just read an interesting article about nurses which says that there are certain things we do or see as Nurses which makes us want to vomit.

http://vitals.nbcnews.com/_news/2012/11/30/15286074-gag-me-many-nurses-squeamish-about-one-thing?lite=obnetwork

So what makes you want to vomit?

I don't really have much that makes me want to vomit, but a couple of incidents come to mind from my early days.

One was the first man who was incontinent of feces and it was spread everywhere

Second one was trying to take a specimen from an episode of malena

Both times it was the smell which caught me unawares

[turnforthenurse, MSN, NP]

Ileostomies with a GI bleed. Worst smell I have ever experienced!!! And the ileostomy had a lot of output, too, so I had to empty that thing multiple times...

Mouth care on patients who have not received mouth care in a long time. I received a patient from a nursing home with aspiration pneumonia. Patient was supposed to be on a full liquid diet but was given solid food so the patient vomited and aspirated. Apparently the patient stayed at this nursing home for a little while before coming to me. No one even bothered to clean out their mouth. I did some meticulous mouth care on this patient and what I found was NASTY. Yellow crusts on the lips, teeth, and tongue...things coming out of the mouth....yuck. I almost wanted to gag, but I saved face because even though this patient was NOT alert & oriented, I could tell they were having their mouth actually cleaned for once. And the family seemed to be more at ease knowing that this patient is finally getting some basic care they have been lacking.

[turnforthenurse, MSN, NP]

I absolutely hate trach care and respiratory secretions. That awful hacking sound gives me the skeeves:***: Also, not a fan of being wrist deep in a necrotic Stage 4 cleaning and packing that thing knowing full good and well it will never heal.

Anybody here watch The Walking Dead? Suctioning those secretions reminds me of the same sounds those walkers make....

[Mommy&RN, BSN, RN]

Food vomit and dentures.

[Havin' A Party!, ASN, RN]

Heavy-duty nausea does. ;>)

[eatmysoxRN, ASN, RN]

Patients who actually reek of filth get to me. It's an indescribable smell but so intense and when you leave the room you just keep smelling it. And feet. I hate huge thick yellow toenails and it makes me gaggy. I have immense respect for podiatrists everywhere.

[One1, BSN, RN]

Children wiggling their loose teeth. Seriously. Vomit, stink, feces, oozing wounds don't bother me, but if a kid proudly wiggles his tooth I want to run. Ugh.

[imintrouble, BSN, RN]

I am uniquely suited to my job.

Nothing makes me want to vomit.

[NursieNurseLPN, LPN]

In school, we had a poor woman with large breasts who had a wash cloth left under them for who knows how long. That smell and situation will stay with me always! I always always always attempt the best skin fold/ under breast care i can now. Ugh that bothered me far more than the bm, vomit, and suctioning. I even remember her when im showering!! (Weird, i know)

[NurseDirtyBird]

Anything having to do with the mouth. There is a reason I am not in a cushy dental hygenist position in a sweet 9-5 dental practice where I get to sit down most of the day. Mucus, saliva, chewed food, vomit...ugh. Can't do it. The only time I ever actually vomited over something at work was when I had to Gastrocult a pool of mucusy vomit. Got the sample and ran for the nearest toilet.

Secretions from a trach gives me no willies whatsoever. It's the same goo, just out of another hole and that makes all the difference apparently.

[Guest343211]

I guess I've gotten pretty much tolerant for most things.

Really, if I were to be quite literal, the main things other than being sick (virus) that makes me nauseated and wanting to vomit, which I detest and fight with every fiber of my being, are narcotics, especially opioids. The other is migrane headaches. Of course if they get bad enough, you may get some relief from vomiting. But if someone gives me any kind of opiate-based/structured medication as a patient, I will definitely vomit. In emergencies, they have attempted to give me opiates. I've warned them repeatedly. This is something we have noted in my family. We just don't tolerate them. Now when my mom had surgery and had to have a msO4 pump, she had to get antiemetics round the clock. It always amazes me how some folks are so sensitive to certain things while others aren't.

Smells can be tough to deal with--someone with low perfusion and coagulopathy in the unit waiting to die--bleeding from every orifice--all that blood pooling--that can be hard.

[michlynn, BSN, RN]

I gagged once in nursing school when my instructor and I had to go in and cath a young woman who had a nasty yeast infection and some other funky stuff going on down there. And I can't listen to anyone puke or look at it when I'm cleaning it up, gets me every time.

[redhead_NURSE98!, ADN, BSN]

The thought of inserting an NG tube. The one time so far that it was "my" task to do, I asked a nursing student if she wanted to do it and she did it! I was holding one halfway down this year while the nurse inserting it went to get someone else (I think she was meeting some unexpected resistance) and by the time she came back I said "Get this tube, I'm going to the floor." I laid down on that nasty floor and was covered in sweat...almost passed out.

An accordion drain with yellow/green, snotty output....when you empty it, it hangs off that little nozzle like snot and you have to wipe it off....ewwwwwww

Listening to people bring up mucus. That snorting sound some people do before they hock that loogie...good god!

Vomit used to do it, but I'm mostly over it. Smell + appearance though, occasionally = gagging!