Work Smells

[mstearns09]

Nope, not a typo in the title. I know over time you get used to the smells you encounter at work. I know all the tricks of the trade when I feel like gaging when cleaning up a particularly difficult code brown, but every once in a while, I come across a code brown that lingers in my nose long, long after I have it cleaned up. I always check myself when I'm done cleaning up someone with an incontinent BM to make sure it didn't get on me but despite checking and knowing it isn't on my uniform, it's as if my nose is still tricking me into smelling it. Anyone else experience this and have advice for how to get the smell to leave my nose?

[StanleyNickels, BSN]

OMG yes. I used to experience this everyday but after working in a LTFC for a year, I got used to it. Some esp. C.diff, gets me every time. I would smell that mess the whole day. As far as advice to get rid of smell, I am still looking for that too.

[Missingyou, CNA]

vicks vapor rub, in your nose.

....put a little of your fav chap stick in your nose. (sounds silly but works)

....a strong mint to suck on.

...wait a few months, then you won't even notice it once the resident is all cleaned up.

[Stephalump]

I'm not horribly bothered by smells, but there have been a couple times when I've felt like an odor haunted me long after the mess was cleaned up.

Last semester I had a suicide patient who was excreting everything there was to excrete everywhere, and part of the gig was to clean him up l. The small stayed with me for a good 24 hours, and I'd probably be able to pick it out of a scent line-up today. I've heard Vicks vapor rub works well, but I haven't tried it.

[mstearns09]

The c.diff patients....yes! That odor will infect the entire hallway! We had one recently and once you experience it, you never forget it. I think I might start keeping a jar of coffee beans in my locker and sniff them after cleaning up a patient with a BM accident. I've been doing this for 3 years so I'm pretty used to the smells but the ones that linger get me every time.

[lilredrunner]

Smell that would NOT get out of my nose even when I got home was an AWFUL sinus infection on an unconscious ICU patient who was on a vent. I had to put menthol chapstick beneath my nose the entire time I was working with him, because the entire room just smelled.. Decayed. I've worked with some awful c. diff, colostomy, and wound infection issues before, but that sinus smell would NOT leave my nose that night..

[Nurseeverywhere, CNA, LVN]

The smell that lingers on my hands even if I double glove.... Now that bothers me. Wash and wash my hands but after clean specific residents I already know.