Worst nursing proceedure ever....

Nurses General Nursing

Published

OK c'mon fess up everyone. There is ONE absolute most worst nursing proceedure that everyone can't stand to do, but you have to when the time arises...what turns your stomach and ties it in a knot for hours after and makes you dred doing it it hours before?????

For me, it's trach care! Uuuuuuugggggggghhhhhhhhh!

I dred doing it. I love when I come on duty and the traches are all nice and clean, but it seems they never stay that way for long. After awhile they become all gooey and bubbly and crusty and then I have to come along and clean this stuff. My God! It's times like this I wonder why I couldn't wait to be a nurse! I mean what was I thinking??? And it's times like this I'd rather be cleaning my cats litter box! The most disgusting part of it all is when I'm almost finished and Joe patient gives a good cough and out flies a loogie and lands on the freshly made bed linen...I can't stand it!!!Why people find this stuff fasinating I'll NEVER know. I'd rather be doing a code brown in all honesty.

So what makes you want to launch your lunch? Don't be shy, tell us why!

The worst case I had was in OB. A full term baby had died in utero and stayed there for several days before delivery. My job as an OB nurse required me to clean and dress the baby to present to the parents for bonding and picture taking. This baby was so macerated and decaying that the skin/tissue came off when you touched it. The smell is horrendous. The family wanted the baby dressed in a white christing gown. I ended up "creating" new skin by wrapping the entire baby (except for the face) in saran wrap. This worked pretty well, but it didn't take all of the odor away. Lots of baby powder sprinkled on the blankets helped.

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Yours is the worse one so far. Oh dear, that is so gross. I can't believe you could even have done it. However did you come up with the idea of Saran wrap. Absolutely gross.

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When other people complain about their jobs... I always say "On your worst day at work, you have never ever had to wipe an old man's bottom!"

Rachel

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this has been the best topic by far!! why is it that us nurses live for gross!? I've seen the maggots and it is disgusting, but my thing is that i can't empty the bedpans and commode buckets filled with poo! emptying spit basins from mouth care is up there too. you mentioned vicks...tiger balm works good too.

a funny story from nursing school....a girl in my class who was not well liked...had pt care for a multiple amputee...arms and legs...very sad...the student absolutely feared amputees for some reason...the instructor knew this and gave the pt to her....when she walked in and pulled the sheet down to do her assessment, she turned all kinds of colors and ran out of the room calling her pt the "head in a bed". Honestly i don't think she ever passed her boards, which is a good thing...none of us nurses would have liked working with her.

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My first day working in the Pedi ED - I go in to assist with the reduction of a fracture.....the doctor ask me to hold her shoulder and all of the sudden, he snapped her bone back into place! I felt my dinner rise to the back of my throat and slowing go back down! Mouth care is way up on my list too!

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"...ran out of the room calling her pt the "head in a bed". ..."

Oh dear.... It's probably just the fact that I am very tired, and I know it is NOT PC, but I laughed out loud at that!

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Specializes in Oncology, Cardiology, ER, L/D.

Don't feel bad Shandy, a non-PC snicker escaped from me too at reading, "head in a bed". We are awful, awful people!

:)

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Yep, I laughed out loud too. Couldn't help myself.:roll :roll :roll

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People, EVERY wanna-be nurse should HAVE to read this thread before applying to nursing school! Might REALLY cut down the waiting lists! :roll I want to throw up just reading this stuff!

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Homeless man brought into the ER for leg pain and swelling. Smell of dead flesh and dark brown fluid leaking into his shoes. Both legs were wrapped in dirty ace bandages. Peeled them off only to find not only a host of maggots but also many many baby cockroaches scatterring everywhere. The maggots I could deal with, their slow moving but the roaches were fast and furious and hard to kill. I felt like things were crawling on me all night. We had to have the ER fumigated there were so many that escaped.

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I have absolutely got to agree with kids-r-fun. I CAN'T stand eyeballs or eyesockets, contact lenses etc. Ohhhh. Getting the willies just thinking about it. The only other thing that has really gotten to me was the feel of brain matter squishing out btwn my fingers as I was assissting with a drsg change to a self inflicted gunshot wound to one's head. Shuddering just recalling it. The feel, the look of it. ICK.

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Originally posted by ShandyLynnRN

"...ran out of the room calling her pt the "head in a bed". ..."

Oh dear.... It's probably just the fact that I am very tired, and I know it is NOT PC, but I laughed out loud at that!

That is too funny.....in a sick twisted kind of way!

:chuckle

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