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 LTF, ALF, Primary & Rhuematology offices.
Maggots... I've seen pts come in with bedsores with maggots in them... REALLY BAD CARE AT HOME!!!!!
Personally, I haven't found my "thing" yet... I actually enjoy and volunteer for those huge stage 4 dressing changes... I'm kinda grusome like that...
ok so I am soo there with you and the other poster I'll take a festering stage 4500 wound ANYDAY of the week instead of having to deal with phlegm!!! I just hate it!:sofahider I can't even breath if I have to give trach care, oral care- the spitting part, collect a sputum culture, or even swab a mouth idk what's wrong with me lol. I have a women with advanced sinus ca and the stuff that comes out of there is UNREAL. Not to mention she dementia so she likes to grab you after picking in there. I mean she has the most horrific mucus coming from there it's thick like a slug and feels like a spongy cord:barf02::barf02: you have to GRIP it to get rid of it. poor thing doesn't realize it's laying there on her lip so we are constantly as we call it "de-slugging" her.
I envision 'guests' reading this post and responding: :eek:LOVES COLOSTOMIES!???? (lol!)
I know, right?? I think my nose is broken, actually. I worked in a fish lab in college, and I got used to some really, really funky smells (rotting walleye insides!). I now have the ultimate poker face haha :)
It's helped me a lot with patients, especially the colostomy patients... they look at me expecting a reaction, and usually they're comforted that I don't cringe!
I'm still a student but I have to say that so far my weakness is definitely poo. I even gag while changing my own baby's diaper. If it's just a little or a formed turd, I'm fine. But if it's soft and all over the place and stinky, I just lose it!
Stuff like maggots and pus - I know I'm a weirdo but I find it fascinating, almost addictive! In my spare time sometimes I actually watch videos on youtube of people or animals infested with maggots or people squeezing out cysts. Sounds really strange, I know, but these videos often have hundreds of thousands of views so I know I'm not the only one. Nothing is more satisfying that watching a cyst being squeezed out and the contents splatting across the room!
Specializes in Med nurse in med-surg., float, HH, and PDN.
I'm still a student but I have to say that so far my weakness is definitely poo. I even gag while changing my own baby's diaper. If it's just a little or a formed turd, I'm fine. But if it's soft and all over the place and stinky, I just lose it!
Stuff like maggots and pus - I know I'm a weirdo but I find it fascinating, almost addictive! In my spare time sometimes I actually watch videos on youtube of people or animals infested with maggots or people squeezing out cysts. Sounds really strange, I know, but these videos often have hundreds of thousands of views so I know I'm not the only one. Nothingis more satisfying that watching a cyst being squeezed out and the contents splatting across the room!
:barf02: you have to GRIP it to get rid of it. poor thing doesn't realize it's laying there on her lip so we are constantly as we call it "de-slugging" her.
:hhmth:
porterwoman
185 Posts
Head lice. Walking around, visible from a few feet away, on a patient that had been in the ICU ~ 3weeks.