What is your Nursing Kryptonite?

You know, your weakness ... your one "thing" that makes your stomach flip over when you see a patient with it/them/whatever. I had my first "maggot" patient recently (maggots living where they shouldn't be, you understand), and it really grossed many of my coworkers out. I was relieved to find that the maggots didn't bother me ... apparently my only Achilles heel thus far is nasty dentures, LOL -- EWWWWW.

When I was a tech, I had a nurse offer me $5 to suction a patient because sputum makes her queasy.

Inserting urinary catheters in women. Will always defer and have someone else perform the task. Frankly, I'd rather insert an NGT.

Specializes in LTC, CPR instructor, First aid instructor..

The demanding family members and friends who pamper the patient, and bring all the foods & delights that aren't good for her/him, enabling said patient to continue to be noncompliant, resulting in numerous unnecessary hospitalizations if said patient was only compliant.

I'm so grossed out by feeding people. I hate standing there waiting and listening to them chew before they are tray for their next bite. I don't have to do it too often, but when it comes up in just so irrationally grossed out by it, I don't even get it myself!

NurseRose84 said:
This definitely!

Also open abdominal fistulas on a patient that just can't seem to grasp that NPO means absolutely nothing by mouth. No matter what we would do, her husband kept brining her 2 liter Sprites/Mt. Dews and Mexican food. Blech! The acid smell is just too much to take! 

You don't enjoy revisiting intact pieces of corn and pepper? Working chunks through the tubing so that the fistula will drain into its Foley bag and not pop the seal, forcing you to spend another hour trying to keep the skin around that fountain dry enough to apply a new wound manager? *Fond memories of wound care* :yes:

I agree with all your saying. I have issues with patients who have not taken care of themselves all their life and then expect us to perform the miracles they are seeking without taking ownership for their own health. I especially dislike frequent flyer pain med seekers and alcoholics. The Irritate me the most. But on the other hand I never ever show my judgment in these areas outward directly to the patient. I always maintain professional attitude towards each and every one of them. My philosophy and take on life is that I can not change them, they need to take that responsibility for themselves. I can only teach and educate them and know they have all heard it before. Especially on a Med/surg post OP floor, if they came in for emergency Colectomy, or Bowel resection, these are medical issues I need to address and of course we all know that their life style has a great impact on patient outcomes. I am not their psychiatrist or Rehab counselor. As I said I can only teach and educate. How I treat this patients? I treat them as a whole person, unique individual's, I customize my care, my dialogue to their level of understanding and needs. I don't lecture, I teach. I emphasize, I show compassion, and never ever make them feel like they are not being heard. I can't save people from their habits but I can make their current medical care and hospital stay a good experience customized to them. As nurses, we need to realize we can not change people. We wouldn't like it. I take good care of myself, I eat healthy for most part, don't smoke, and exercise regularly, but if I were to go into hospital for anything, I know I will be the worse patient to take medications. I will be non-compliant because I am 59 and take pride in the fact that I do not take any prescription medications. I do however take vitamins. Like I said I eat healthy for most part and always use holistic alternatives to any everyday minor illness, fatigue, headaches, common cold. So It is a catch 22. We all have our idiosynchrocies.(not sure if spelled right?) Basically we are all different in how we think based on what we know and what we are willing to learn to know better, how we were raised and the beliefs we were brought up with. Children learn what they live. I was brought up in an all Italian home with abundance of great fattening food. I choose at young age in my teen years to change those habits early in life after seeing what it did to my family members and my mom being very overweight. I took pride in my appearance and loved to wear latest fashions and look good in them, so I took nutrition course when I was 13. That was the best thing I have every done, it changed the course of my life and I extended that on to My children. They eat healthy and do not take medications, pain meds or drugs of any kind because of that. So we can not change patients, it is an innate desire to change themselves, we can only plant the seed, and we must plant it strategically according to patients learning style. Talk their language and agree with them, It can't hurt and you can still teach them without them knowing they are being taught. My patients, all of them Love me, even the most ornery patients that no one else wants. I was always the one to be asked if I could take them when no one else would. They are like putty in my hands. Fellow Nurses were always amazed by this. And wonder How I do it. Just follow the basic rules, treat people how you like to be treated and teach them at their level and keep your judgements out of the equation. If They say "I hated when that Nurse came in and demanded I get up and walk just right after I just had surgery" I say, "I know, I don't blame you, I especially dislike how they say it, I mean can't communicate to me in a nice way, I know they are right that walking will benefit me help me heal faster but I like to be treated with respect after all I am just not a patient, I am a person" And then I would tell them I will come back in a half hour and try to get you up to walk, even if you just sit on the side of the bed and stand, that's a start. I have always for the most part had good outcomes handling it this way. Reverse psychology works all the time. Just remember leave you out of patient care and make it about them.

This is a very interesting thread!

I will gladly suction trachs. I derive some weird satisfaction with sucking out those globs.

So far (relatively new, been on the floor for just under a year) the only thing that almost made me gag was a pt who is a frequent flier at our facility...I don't remember what exactly pt was in for this particular time. Pt was a Q2H turn and incontinent of both urine and stool. The aide and I went to turn and change pt (BM) and when I started wiping there were ginormous blobs of mucous in the stool...softball-sized globs that had no end to them, would not break, just stretched and stretched. :nailbiting: :barf02: :dead: So. Gross. I actually thought the aide was going to lose it in there too. (I guess I can only handle mucous coming from one end, not the other LOL)

Patients who come in and then are POed because you're doing your job. They "want to be left alone so they can sleep". I always wonder why those people don't just stay home if that's what they're looking for??? Along the same line, the people who are mad because they don't get discharged because they don't get better...because they don't follow what the doc tells them. We had a CHF pt come in once who was mad as a hornet because he ended up staying for over a week. He came to the ED because he "couldn't breathe", had massive fluid overload, was on 3 diuretics when I got him, and then started screaming at me when I took the salt shaker he thought he had cleverly hidden. (They must have had an endless supply of salt shakers at home because the spouse kept bringing them in to pt since of course no one would let him have salt.)

Specializes in Med-Surg, Geriatrics, Wound Care.

GI Bleed and GoLytely. I'm also really bedpan-phobic in general.

Oh, and those patients that refuse to bathe. Especially if they have gangrene and won't allow dressing changes.

Otherwise, I'm fine with wounds, ostomies, those feet that _need_ TLC. Kinda gross with the powdered skin, but I usually just feel bad for the Pts.

Psych patients who OD then call 911... I do not verbalize my thoughts... but just want to say "try a gun next time!"

Performing useless, sometimes painful, care on terminal patients because the doctor won't address code status or order a palliative care consult despite multiple requests.

I would like 2 of IV dialudid, thats the only thing that works for me... oh and a cheeseburger and fries with that!

Performing useless, sometimes painful, care on terminal patients because the doctor won't address code status or order a palliative care consult despite multiple requests.

Or the family keeps insisting on intervention after intervention...there are worse things than death, that's for sure.

Specializes in CCU, Infection Control.

In was just waiting to see someone's Kryptonite of "retching and vomiting"!! I cannot handle this either because I start to retch!! LOL....it's so silly and weird. I can love the slurping and satisfaction of deep tracheal suctioning, but cannot stand vomit!! Super EWWWWWW!!

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