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.

Specializes in ER.

how odd that I should find this thread right now. When it's needed. WEIRD.

My Kryptonite, which I just used this word last night! - is a newborn question of sepsis. Not comfortable - hate hate hate it. Give me a esophageal varices bleeding out.... anything else!

Any tips on gaining "comfort" in this area? Beyond working in a PICU - no thank you - how about courses specializing in newborn sepsis? I don't believe comfort ever will be in my vocabulary for a critically ill newborn, but any thoughts out there on gaining near to that?? Haa.

Thanks!

SOOOO just reading what others posted and you guys are posting gross/gag things - which my post is more about what weakens me, as in what scares me, but what grosses me out is some nasty lung butter. Or receiving a patient from a nursing home in a Depends that hasn't been addressed in days and has layers and layers of pads. Full of urine. That's some serious Ammonia hitting you.

Ewwwwwww......................

Specializes in ER.

great suggestion. I am looking for specific training for critically ill newborns presenting to the ED. Thanks, I will look into it.

=)

Specializes in LTC, hospital.

Stage IV decubitis with staph makes me want to :barf02:

Specializes in ED.

It sounds strange because I'm good with just about anything, but what I absolutely can't take is the common horrible "feet" smell from homeless people. That's the only thing that ever gets to me.

Specializes in ED.
Stage IV decubitis with staph makes me want to :barf02:

I had a young 20 something yo guy once who was paralyzed by a GSW and had been living by himself. He had stage 4 ulcers all over his thighs and buttock. I think there were more holes than flesh left. It was pretty gross, and sad.

Specializes in ED.

A pt who had not bathed (or moved much) in Quite some time had a twinkie squished in her perineal area. I am pretty sure it had a prior home close by. I put it in a basin on her bed. I should have put it further out of her reach because while I searched for more misplaced snacks she started munching on it. I had to go get air.

Dentures with food all over them used to horrify me (like when you take them out and there's all sorts of masticated food in them) but I've done enough in the last year that I'm almost totally over it now. Vomit, though, can't handle it. I was in with a forty-year-old resident (I'm in LTC, not emerg) a couple of weeks ago, a diabetic with severe blood sugar fluctuations. It was 2am and he needed a snack so I was in his room as he had just finished a glass of juice and was eating a sandwich and BLEAH

Vomit all over himself and his bed. I gasped out loud and said "Oh. Oh, um, hang on, I need to go get some towels! I'll be right back!" Ran out of the rooms and passed the towels, into the linen closet and desperately called the nightshift girl downstairs. I told her I'd bribe her with anything but she said she was too busy. So I had to do a bed change, clothes change, wash him up, wash off his remote and bedrails (aaaaah), and stand in that damn room with that damn smell for over half an hour! As I was carrying his dirty blanket down the hall I dropped it on the floor and..."pieces" fell on the floor. Every time I even tried to look at them I would gag uncontrollably to the point where my eyes teared up! Anyway, the guy was totally fine (even after having to sit in his own puke momentarily, poor guy) and I ended up leaving the vomit on the floor until 6:45am when I finally got up the balls to clean it.

Puke, I cannot deal with :uhoh3:

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.

There's a lot that grosses me out a little, but the one thing that follows me home and makes me feel contaminated is crusty, flaky, shedding skin. Like when you move the patients and there's a human-shaped print on the bed of skin flakes, or you take off a sock and flakes burst in to the air, or you wipe their back with a washcloth and the washcloth comes back covered in dead skin.

Smells, suction noise, make me gag momentarily but I can move on. The skin stuff makes me feel dirty for DAYS.

Specializes in BICU, ER, SICU.

Mouth/teeth things gross me out. Sputum, when patients are hawking it up. Doesn't bother me to suction it out of an intubated patient. And lastly, ear irrigations. Ginormous balls of ear wax are not normal, and should not be in someone's ear.

Specializes in Med-Surg., home health, PACU, ICU, etc..

Oh, sputum!

Whether it's flying at me, being hacked up or just gurgling, it takes my focus away and removes the shield of my nurse-hood. Other things, I can remain focused on the needs of the situation, but sputum makes me human again.

As a very new student nurse, I've been asked to measure vomit. I didn't mind until I poured it into the measuring jug and the smell hit me...

Needless to say, my lesson for the day was that the smell and consistency of stale vomit takes on a whole new meaning when poured out of its container. (Think of the skin on cooled custard and you're almost there!) :barf02:

Specializes in Emergency Department.

I don't have anything that makes me sick. I can deal with pretty much all of it. But my buggaboo is strangely coughing. I gotta take a few steps back when they cough because if I don't they will cough in my face. And then I would be an angry man with a needle instead of a caring man with a needle.

My preceptor couldn't touch feet and that made me smile.

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