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.

[Axgrinder]

My nursing kryptonite is Pseudomonas infected sputum via a chronic trach.

Once, during my 2nd (and ill fated) pregnancy, I had the sweetest man as a patient. He was very large, in fact morbidly obese, and had a chronic trach. He wasn't able to do a good job with proper home maintenance, and ended up inpatient in one of our step down beds with a raging URI.

Every time that poor man coughed - out popped his trach, along with copious amounts of that light green, sweet/foul scented sputum. I was still in the throes of morning sickness at the time. I couldn't help it - I retched every time I walked within 5 feet of his room. I was humiliated because I'm sure it made him feel bad, and he was a really nice guy.

Eventually another nurse (whose kryptonite was liquid stool) offered to trade me for an incontinent GI bleed patient. Done! The deal was struck!

I have been able to ID that particular organism by smell with every occurrence, much to my dismay. And it has brought me to my knees (proverbially) every single time.

(((I'm so ashamed))) …

[Axgrinder]

I can deal with urine, feces, blood, what have you, but it takes everything I have to handle a patient's mucus. I absolutely HATE when they hand me a tissue full of what they have blown out of their nose or coughed up so I can see it! LOL

What about when you accidentally pull back the sheets only to discover they have been using the top sheet as a tissue? As a new grad I learned real fast to use gloves before delving into linens, as any number of bodily fluids that could be lurking within - even with a seemingly AAO pt.

The worst is when you walk up to the bedside and skid in the phlem they have spat onto the floor …

[Axgrinder]

Orphan RN said:

I can deal with urine, feces, blood, what have you, but it takes everything I have to handle a patient's mucus. I absolutely HATE when they hand me a tissue full of what they have blown out of their nose or coughed up so I can see it! LOL

What about when you accidentally pull back the sheets only to discover they have been using the top sheet as a tissue? As a new grad I learned real fast to use gloves before delving into linens, as any number of bodily fluids that could be lurking within - even with a seemingly AAO pt.

The worst is when you walk up to the bedside and skid in the phlem they have spat onto the floor 

[VivaLasViejas, ASN, RN]

Mine is feet. They don't have to be nasty, they just have to be feet. Trachs, ostomies, pressure ulcers, ocular emissions, feces, vomit, all of that doesn't bother me. Make me deal with feet and I'm gagging.

Yes. This. Give me your trachs, your C. diff, your pressure sores yearning to be healed, but don't make me handle your feet. Or your grody dentures. BLECH.

[jenin]

Old men and sputum cups...yuk!! Just listening to them made me want to vomit...let alone the cup of sputum.....

[jenin]

Old men and sputum cups...yuk!! Just listening to them made me want to vomit...let alone the cup of sputum.....

But strangely, doing chest physio with young kids and teens with cf, and suctioning kids in icu, never bothered me.

[RNbubu]

Alert and oriented patients (and many times family members) who are rude to us nurses and act as if they just checked in into a 5-stars hotel and we are their dedicated 24-hour server. Or those who think it is ok to take all of their frustrations on the nursing staff. And even worse, those who think that because we are nurses we can be humiliated and treated poorly just because that is how it is.

[mrclark0000]

In the almost 40 years of nursing the one thing I have a hard time with are gooey trachs. I gag every time. Associated with that is adult snot.

In the last 15 years, I have a terrible problem with nurses and other healthcare professionals who smoke. The smell of it on their clothes, having them light one up around me, I have zero tolerance.

Even worse than that smokers smell is the Stinky Perfume that some use to cover up their smoking habits..

I call these people "secret smokers" and I detest them more than those who are real smokers.

[NotAllWhoWandeRN, ASN, RN]

Even worse than that smokers smell is the Stinky Perfume that some use to cover up their smoking habits..

I call these people "secret smokers" and I detest them more than those who are real smokers.

We had a patient vaping the other day. I wasn't at that end of the hall, but the techs and the pt's nurse said the odor was gag-me thick.

You can survive without nicotine until you're discharged, people.

[Emster83]

Sputum... of any kind. Especially have an aversion to trachs... ya know, when they cough and a glob will fly across the room. I just can't even.

But along this same topic, does anyone find that their ability to handle blood/bodily fluids is getting worse, rather than getting better? This seems to be the case for me. Most things seemed not to bother me early on, but as my career gains length, I'm getting grossed out more.

[samdbgt]

For me.. it is always the Night. All the nights are darker and kryptonic for me. No matter how many days this has been, this is still the kryptonite for.. But then i am a fighter and the sun is always with me taking me stronger into the next day and night. :)

[dzadzey, MSN, RN]

Patients and families with an overweening sense of entitlement, treating nurses and our support staff as if we were wait staff at a Waffle House.