What's your nursing kryptonite?

[ktliz]

It goes without saying that to be a nurse, you need to have (or quickly develop) a strong stomach. But even with a stomach of steel, nursing kryptonite can leave you nauseated and gagging, even if only on the inside.

I'm only starting clinicals next semester, so granted, I still have much to see... but thus far in my life, the thing that disgusts me the most is, oddly enough, tonsil stones! How can something so small be so repulsive?

What's your nursing kryptonite?

[Lemon_squeezy, BSN, RN]

Really wet wound vacs.

I changed one tonight, and if you touched him, this mans sacrum would have purulent drainage leak out the wazoo... was sitting trying to fish out saturated packing about 4-5 cm into this dude's sacrum, and that smell is just.. AWESOME..

-gag-.

[AstaRN]

Eye balls and watching someone vomit. In nursing school I actually had to excuse myself from a pt's room to his bathroom to sympathy puke. He was throwing up eggs and I just couldn't take it.

[muffins20]

Bowel obstruction. God, I feel horrible for those patients.

And when people do pericare and throw the dirty cloths onto a bedside chair or table instead of in the trash or on a chux pad on the floor because they are rushed or lazy. That's not sanitary.

[NocturneNrse]

Emptying or "burping" a colostomy bag. And doing it without gagging or making any displeasure known so as not to upset the patient.

[egglady, LPN]

ANYTHING that comes out of the nose or mouth- yup- I cant handle snot or puke! Ick,yuck, ishy, eeewwww!!!

[RNbrent]

Emptying or "burping" a colostomy bag. And doing it without gagging or making any displeasure known so as not to upset the patient.

this x 10 billion.

That smell is so awful sometimes, and you're trying your best not to let the patient know you notice it since they're a little self conscious themselves.

Anything else is fine.

[Catch22Personified]

Honestly, smells and visuals don't bother me.

It's the politics in the workplace is so off putting. I know its everywhere but, for an occupation that banks on compassion and caring it really fosters some animosity amongst the nurses especially towards newbies. Some of the stuff that I saw as a student was almost enough for me to switch majors.

[mama_d, BSN, RN]

Lumbar punctures. I'm cool with it until I see the fluid going up that tube, then I almost pass out.

When our youngest was almost two months old, he spent three days in the hospital with sepsis. They did a LP on him in the ED, and I was secretly so relieved that they refused to let us be with him while they were doing it (they had a separate "sterike room" they did those kinds of invasive procedures in). I felt so guilty, but I was having a hard enough time holding it together...I was afraid if I saw it I'd actually pass out.

[Scarlette Wings]

trigger warning....weak stomachs need not read this entry....

beyond all doubt it is maggots in a dirty necrotic wound that you can smell long before you get to the room and peel away the clothing stuck to it!

please, no preaching to me about how the little buggers are doing a good job helping heal the wound heal and getting rid of necrotic tissue....i know they use sterile maggots in wound therapy now and i understand that they have their place...my stomach also has it's limits and it's place. watching my cheerio's make a repeat appearence for breakfast was not the way i want to go.

my very first

introduction was on a new admission on a hot summer day when a very large patient told me they had "a sore back there and it itches and feels like it has something crawling in there." please note that i was a new nurse and i had already come into the room and met my first smell of infected dying tissue...only i did not know the odor or it's true source. (once you have the odor defined however it is imprinted on every nerve cell in your being)

being a new nurse and wanting to perform my best assessment and being naive...i turned on the overhead light for a good view and rolled over the said patient, peeled off the dried crusted underwear from their backside and met my first tunneled decubitus with necrosis and "live" moving tissue.

[Trenia]

trigger warning....weak stomachs need not read this entry....

beyond all doubt it is maggots in a dirty necrotic wound that you can smell long before you get to the room and peel away the clothing stuck to it!

please, no preaching to me about how the little buggers are doing a good job helping heal the wound heal and getting rid of necrotic tissue....i know they use sterile maggots in wound therapy now and i understand that they have their place...my stomach also has it's limits and it's place. watching my cheerio's make a repeat appearence for breakfast was not the way i want to go.

my very first

introduction was on a new admission on a hot summer day when a very large patient told me they had "a sore back there and it itches and feels like it has something crawling in there." please note that i was a new nurse and i had already come into the room and met my first smell of infected dying tissue...only i did not know the odor or it's true source. (once you have the odor defined however it is imprinted on every nerve cell in your being)

being a new nurse and wanting to perform my best assessment and being naive...i turned on the overhead light for a good view and rolled over the said patient, peeled off the dried crusted underwear from their backside and met my first tunneled decubitus with necrosis and "live" moving tissue.

brb lunch.

[RNindy]

nasty toenails on people who are able to take care of them. You know, the really thick, 2" long ones. Usually on dudes who really wear a size 10 shoe but have to buy size 12 cause they are lazy.

[megjrn]

Sputum.