What nursing task do you loathe???

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dexm

73 Posts

Specializes in ICU, ED.
When I worked nights I always hated travelling for HCTs. It would put me SO far behind to get packed up, getting the CT itself, and then making the pt presentable. All those lines and wires get SO tangled, esp. if the pt has an EVD, an art line, and CVP setup. Because then you have not only lines but the pressure bags/EVD canister etc. (Scheduled HCTs are done around 0500.)

YES!! I hate having to travel with my patient. Even if it's a quick and easy CT head (takes less than 20 min to get there and back). Don't even get me started on MRI and IR. Having to leave the unit to get anything besides food/coffee makes me want to die.

Jensmom7, BSN, RN

1,907 Posts

Specializes in Hospice.
I swear the following is true.

After one particularly difficult disimpaction the patient shuddered and proclaimed, "I feel so giddy!" I was thinking they do not pay me enough for that kind of service..

This reminded me of my Hospice patient who played around with her pain meds, ignored her bowel program and flat out lied to me regarding the amount of BM she was having. She also refused to let me do rectal exams.

Got a call from the office on a Monday morning to see her for severe constipation. Really. I get there, she's in agony. She's so impacted her orifice is dilated and stool is protruding.

I give her some Roxanol, get gloves and Surgilube, and start digging for gold. After I dug out this huge, hellish amount of rock hard stool, she said, "Two things: One, I will never lie to you again. Two, I refuse to believe that gay men actually like having stuff put there!"

Specializes in Emergency/Trauma/Critical Care Nursing.
This reminded me of my Hospice patient who played around with her pain meds, ignored her bowel program and flat out lied to me regarding the amount of BM she was having. She also refused to let me do rectal exams.

Got a call from the office on a Monday morning to see her for severe constipation. Really. I get there, she's in agony. She's so impacted her orifice is dilated and stool is protruding.

I give her some Roxanol, get gloves and Surgilube, and start digging for gold. After I dug out this huge, hellish amount of rock hard stool, she said, "Two things: One, I will never lie to you again. Two, I refuse to believe that gay men actually like having stuff put there!"

Forgive my naivety, I didn't realize hospice pts had regular rectal exams. Is it because of the large amount of pain meds they're on?

allnurses Guide

Spidey's mom, ADN, BSN, RN

11,304 Posts

Forgive my naivety, I didn't realize hospice pts had regular rectal exams. Is it because of the large amount of pain meds they're on?

Bowel protocol is huge due to the pain medication. And yes, if someone hasn't had a BM in a certain amount of days and your protocol isn't working (stool softeners, laxatives, suppositories, Mg. Citrate, MOM, etc.) then an enema is advised which entails a rectal exam first.

I do have patients who refuse enemas and rectal exams. One out of shyness and I gave him suppositories to place himself as he is able to do so and it worked. Other people can't do it themselves. It is a challenge to keep a person's bowels healthy and moving. :up:

Edited to add - I just remembered a recent patient who'd become used to having a BM only by enema. She'd done it for years. She refused to allow the nurses to give her an enema and could handle doing it herself until the last few days of life.

chorses4evr

53 Posts

Thanks for this post! As a nursing student it's comforting to know that it's normal for the "icky" stuff to bother me...as long as the patient doesn't know!

xjamxtc

20 Posts

I think all patients- in fact all people should read this post before they graduate high school and at least once every year after...

and then once again before being released...

that only leaves the crying little snot monsters with green snot running out of their noses screaming at the top of their lungs... and you didn't even touch them yet..

BSNbeauty, BSN, RN

1,939 Posts

Trying to latch a baby that is too sleep to wake up to nurse despite my 100 interventions.

PKU and hearing screens

Guess my job isn't too bad

missndc RN BSN

11 Posts

I have been an RN since 1980 and oral care & cleaning yucky dentures is still the only activity guaranteed to make me gag. I cannot even stand to watch people on TV brushing their teeth.

Specializes in Hospital medicine; NP precepting; staff education.

In nursing school we were practicing oral care on mannequins. Then we practiced peri-care. One of my classmates looked at the dummy's nethers and said, "Would you like some oral care?" quite by mistake, but it was soooo funny —not only for what she said but she was bent at the waist and was nose to ken doll parts with the "patient."

Jensmom7, BSN, RN

1,907 Posts

Specializes in Hospice.
Forgive my naivety, I didn't realize hospice pts had regular rectal exams. Is it because of the large amount of pain meds they're on?

Not usually, unless someone hasn't gone in 3-4 days, but I knew this one was lying through her teeth about her bowel status. Seriously, she had brown eyes before I disimpacted her-when I was done, they were blue!! 😆

Kiki1970

113 Posts

Specializes in Psychiatric, Aesthetics.

Gagging!!!! I know better than to read this thread after dinner.:dead:

peri care in a SNF. Yeah- give me an IV, Foley, etc... Mucous in whatever- I'll take it over anything in a snf!

flyersfan88

449 Posts

Specializes in Trauma, Orthopedics.

1. I like trachs. Suctioning, cleaning, whatever. I DON'T like having to put a new one back in when pt decides they don't need it anymore and decannulates themselves, then they're bleeding and getting bronched.

2. Vomit. Just forget it. You get handed a basin and I'm out of the room.

3. NGT, mostly for reason number 2.

4. Abdominal fistulas. The leaking. The tedious process of finding a system that works. Pulling food out that's clogging said fistula. Changing the wound manager while abdominal contents spew out.

5. Getting pts oob to the chair. I just do.

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