I am relatively new here. I spent the last year reading allnurses.com and recently registered and would like to know what is your weakness regarding medical care.
Everyone, at least that I know, has a weakness. Something that just makes them queasy. Some people say they can't handle sputum of any kind and others seem to get weak in the knees when they see broken bones. (I knew a ER nurse who admitted to this)
I tend to get a little woozy when someone palpates my inner arm to look for a vein. It even happens if I think about it too much. It is not the needle. I had them in my hand and does not do a thing to me. I can deal with anything else. Granted I am still a student so I have not experienced everything.
So, what does it for you? Inquiring minds want to know.
Looking at my own blood. Others body fluids don't bother me and I've been known to pick through vomit to see what's in it (a dr asked). Smells don't bother me but I'm not too fond of the GI bleeds. I don't blink an eye when someone gets sunctioned.
I pick through poo at least once a shift to get c-diff cultures or hemacult. That's the life of an aide!
I'll be the one in clinicals who will pass out in surgery! Go figure.
Oooh! Forgot one - colostomies. And I feel terrible about this one because having a colostomy is already such a vanity issue for the pts who have one. G-stomas don't bother me at all, so I don't get it.
Tunneling wounds! Yuck! Even if they don't look bad from the outside, the thought of packing them...eeewww! That Q-Tip goes soooo far in! I always get lightheaded!
I can handle blood, poop, and vomiting. The one thing that rolls my stomach is sputum!!!!!!! I have 2 trach pts that need suctioning at least 2x a shift. Also when they cough and the sputum flies through the air like a projectile missle!!!!!!!!!! The smell of GI bleeds can turn my stomach too.....
Just found my weakness last week. Pt with first post-op BM following bowel resection. There was no actual stool, just yellow jelly looking stuff and tissue. And the smell was horrid! The thing stuck to the bottom of the bedside commode as I rinsed and rinsed.....and gagged and gagged.
Specializes in Endo, Outpt Surgery, Hospice, LTC, MH,.
I can handle body fluids and wounds...but it is the smell of some infections and a very unclean female that get me.....I don't get nauseous because I know how to get around the smell....but I can't stand it!!!!
General E. Speaking, RN, RN
1 Article; 1,337 Posts
suctioning- the sound irks me.
first: sssssslllluuuurrrrrrpppppppppp.
second: plunk (when the glob plops into the cannister)
eeewwww