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?
Specializes in Med nurse in med-surg., float, HH, and PDN.
We had a pt with a peritonsillar abcess that broke through the soft palate...the smell was like a combination of gangrene and halitosis.
Wet gangrene...
I once had to put a NG tube down a pt who had an ileus, she then started vomiting, and liquid stool came out her mouth and the end of the NG tube. Fecal emesis...yechh.
This thread taked me back to nursing school. I have to agree with suctioning anything respiratory or spinal cord injury related -bowel training, gangrene, etc... -nasty. I worked L&D so I would have to say explosive diarrhea each time the pt pushed. I'm fine with stinky "cooch" but green phlegm -yack.
Specializes in Med nurse in med-surg., float, HH, and PDN.
Had a friend who 'forgot' she had a tampon in.....when she went to the doc about the odor problem and he discovered and removed the tampon which had been there two weeks+; well, she said they ALL gagged.
Oh yes -the "lost" tampon in for weeks is another good one -We have a can of Lysol just for those pts to decontaminate the toxic smell in the room after.
Can handle most of the nasty bodily fluids, excretements and exudates (but would prefer not to). What freaks me out is being followed around for most of the shift by dementia or pscyhe patients (even if they are being sweet).
Lol! I happen to be a Psychiatric Nurse so I found this amusing. Some psych patients are really creepy for sure.
Specializes in Med nurse in med-surg., float, HH, and PDN.
Lol! I happen to be a Psychiatric Nurse so I found this amusing. Some psych patients are really creepy for sure.
I agree, having dementia patients constantly clustering around you, especially at the med-cart, can be rather unnerving even if they are being 'sweet', as mentioned by an earlier poster. And they all want your attention, and are very difficult to block out in order to concentrate on your task.
It's strange, but I also HATE the flaky skin that flies in the air when you take off someone's ted hose. I hold my breath until I can stand up to get away from the cloud! Also, dentures. Gag me now, I cannot stand the saliva and old food dripping from them. I can take any kind of diarrhea, vomit, purulent drainage, wounds, toes, ANYTHING except flaky skin and dentures!
Oh yes -the "lost" tampon in for weeks is another good one -We have a can of Lysol just for those pts to decontaminate the toxic smell in the room after.
This totally reminded me - we had to pack this poor woman's lady parts after hysterectomy and that was the most AWFUL smell ever! Good thing she had her legs bent up so she couldn't see my face!
No Stars In My Eyes
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OOOOOOOOOOOOOOHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH EEEEEEEEEEEEAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUEEEEEEEEEWWWWWWWWWWWWWW! GROSSSS!:dzed:
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