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!
Normally, I have a cast iron stomach and nerves of steel until this one patient brought me to my knees. The overwhelming stench of decomposing flesh assaulted my senses as I entered the door. I thought to myself, "I can deal with this, I've done it before", but nothing could have prepared me for what I was about to see.
"You really don't want to hear the rest of this story....do you?"
uuuggggghhhh, we're dying to hear the rest of the story(hehe sounds like Paul Harvey) lol :roll
Get out your barf-bags and I'll try to finish this story.
.....the smell
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I'm sorry, my son just came in and is bugging me to take him to the store. We've been snowed in for the last three days and I guess it's time to slide down this mountain for a supply run.
The smell of gangrene. Hands down, no doubt about it. I can take every smell that ever there was or is, but gangrene is the one that adheres to my nasal mucosa and stays there--for what seems like forever! How unfortunate for me that in the un-sung role of foot care nurse, I have to smell gangrene so often.
Get out your barf-bags and I'll try to finish this story.
.....the smell
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I'm sorry, my son just came in and is bugging me to take him to the store. We've been snowed in for the last three days and I guess it's time to slide down this mountain for a supply run.
I will return.....C.
Barf bag in position. Ready and waiting for your return! :uhoh21:
I'd have to say that I am really hardpressed to pick a worst procedure,smell, task or whatever
there are everso many to choose from...
I didnt have a good stomach as a nursing student, very queasy a lot of the time, so when my patients colostomy bag exploded all over himself and my nice mauve uniform I would have to say that I puked and had the dry heaves the rest of the week - so colostomy situations are not my fave
hated suctioning but now I'm used to it and it doesnt phase me , unless there is some pseudomonas growin up in there, then thats a different story
but hands down, gangrene, the smell of gangrene just makes me uhhhh now I cant get it out of my head (thanks Lois Jean! hehe)
yah gangrene is baaaaaaaaad, the smell stays with you, you think your whole uniform smells like it ,and sometimes , just from mouth breathing enough you can almost tas....errr nevermind
For the people that cannot stand eye problems, I have this story from early in my career.
Working the night shift in the CCU, I admitted a 80 year old indian from the reservation. She was complaining of chest pain and nausea. On admit she had an eye patch on, but none of us admitting her could be bothered to ask why. Anyway, the MD orders an NG be placed, he didn't think anything of the eyepatch either. So I go and try to place the NG, Darndest thing was, I could place the thing with absolutely no resistance. Then I would try and aspirate, nothing. so I would listen, nothing. so I had the women open her mouth, (not easy, she did not speak english), nothing there. Hmmmm it had to go somwhere? So I removed it again, and tried one last time. After getting the right length in, I was looking at her face, and noted the eye patch moved if I moved the NG. Sure enough, upon removal of the patch, the NG was found coiled in her eye socket. she had a cancer removed, that had tracked along her trigeminal nerve, and required the denucleation of her left orbit. To add to the picture, the wound was nasty, and the pus was very alarmingly present. Through erosion, the wound had created a passage to the patients nasal passage, allowing the NG to pass. That was bad.
On the butt pus front, I was floated to the ER, and took an admit c/o rectal pain. Upon exam, the patient was found to have a racquet ball size boil/pustual in the anal area. The doctors decided to lance the thing at the gurney side. Upon insertion of the scalpel, the pus jumped forth and sprayed three of the people in attendance. Being good doctors, they did as they are taught, and did not follow universal precautions, (none had masks, or gouwns on). Each was sprayed about their chest, and groin. Luckily no one got it in the face. The stench was horrendous, and to this day, I have not smelled anything worse, nor have I seen an ER clear out so fast. I did not get sprayed, as I was behind the mob during the procedure.
My absolute worst thing is ear irrigations, I can handle anything, gi bleeds, colostomy bags, anything but..... if I see those big, nasty chunks of earwax my gag reflex goes into overdrive!!!
:p
moonrose2u
211 Posts
a difficult central line insertion....oh boy, to dig around and around..with such a large bore needle and catheter.....just gives me the willies...