What is your "thing" and how do you deal with it?

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Specializes in Med-Surg newbie.

One of my nursing instructors once told me that every nurse has their one "thing" that makes them completely gag and want to vomit??. Hers happened to be emptying colostomy bags. She dealt with it by using peppermint or lavender essential oils in her mask. I have discovered mine...sputum. I have been taking care of a gentleman who has quite a productive cough. Whenever he coughs he then has to spit out a large amount of sputum in a basin. I then obviously have to empty the basin rinse it out and give it back to him. His doctor asked for a sputum specimen to send to the lab. So this time he had to spit it into a cup and I had to put that into a specimen jar and send it to the lab. It took forever to get it into the specimen cup because it was super thick and stuck to the sides of the cup. Although I didn't throw up, I was gagging so hard, I peed a little ????. I can completely understand the need to get that out of the back of his throat because I have chronic post nasal drip myself - it's so gross. My question is how do you deal with your "thing" and what is it?

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Feet... clean feet, dirty feet, crusty feet, feet that flake skin everywhere when you pull a sock off, Wal-mart feet, fungus feet... just no... I can't... no. ?????????

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Specializes in PACU, Stepdown, Trauma.

Bed pans with stool... I put a Chux inside the bed pan so I can just throw it away instead of trying to rinse it out. If it's really gross I've been known to just throw the plastic pan away and get a new one.

Tip for sputum: have the patient spit the sputum directly into the specimen cup.

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Specializes in Adult Primary Care.

Definitely sputum, and I'm an NP in an Internal medicine / pulmonary practice!!!!

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Specializes in orthopedic/trauma, Informatics, diabetes.

eyeballs

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Specializes in ER OR LTC Code Blue Trauma Dog.

Nothing... I upgraded to a cast iron stomach. lol

But some people do have pretty gross feet though. Hate when all that dead skin flies around when pulling their sock off. Try not to breathe any of it into your lungs okay? ?

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Specializes in ER OR LTC Code Blue Trauma Dog.
47 minutes ago, mmc51264 said:

eyeballs

Ah yes, memories after the ER codes and human donations for the eye bank.

You know if you do it just right, they will pop right out ! lol ?

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Specializes in LTC, assisted living, med-surg, psych.
13 hours ago, Puella said:

Feet... clean feet, dirty feet, crusty feet, feet that flake skin everywhere when you pull a sock off, Wal-mart feet, fungus feet... just no... I can't... no. ?????????

Me too. And dentures...those are my nursing Kryptonite. Give me blood, vomit, sputum, even a GI bleed any day of the week---but please don't make me deal with feet or oral care. Ick.

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Specializes in ER OR LTC Code Blue Trauma Dog.

For those reasons I have perfect feet. In fact, I could be a foot model on TV. lol

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Specializes in ED, med-surg, peri op.

Omg. Mines ostomy bags too. Never meet anyone else who has the same “thing” as me. Manage to avoid them for the last 2 years I’ve been a nurse. I know one day my luck will run out.

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Specializes in OB.
9 hours ago, VivaLasViejas said:

Me too. And dentures...those are my nursing Kryptonite. Give me blood, vomit, sputum, even a GI bleed any day of the week---but please don't make me deal with feet or oral care. Ick.

OMG dentures---so vile. Not a fan of pseudamonas-infected wounds or C. diff poop either...

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