Worst nursing proceedure ever....

Nurses General Nursing

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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!

Originally posted by 3rdShiftGuy

Sputum and trachs don't bother me a bit. Poop is not to bad either, and I have disimpacted more patients than I can count. I love to NT suction patients.

But I can't stand being around a drunk patient that vomits. I usually have to leave..."um, excuse me while I go get some towels".

That's a tough one! A tip I learned was to always carry

a little jar of Vick's vaporub. Put some on your upper

lip and keep on workin'.

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Originally posted by c.wicks

Get out your barf-bags and I'll try to finish this story.

.....the smell

___________________

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.

Hey man! Stop hiking the A.T. and finish the story!

AHHHHHHH...I'm gonna die of curiosity!!! :

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I'm a Nursing Assistant who is starting Nursing school in March and I will have to say that sputum is the worst for me. I can handle anything else thrown at me (even literally, lol), but cannot stomach loogies!

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Originally posted by nilepoc

Butt Pus is the worst

"Butt pus" Hmmm.... I think I found the new name for my band... :D

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I had a woman who had to have an emergency thoracotomy because of her perferated esophagus. They put chest tubes in and got kernals of corn and carrots out of her pleural space!

That's not the bad part, though.

She was vented and had raging sinusitis. Not only was I suctioning green goop out of her ET tube, but out of her nose as well. Finally I gave in and stuck a suction catheter way up her nose and pulled out several golf-ball sized chunks of bright green mucus!

I still have nightmares about that. Blech!

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BTW...I know something that has always worked better for me than Vicks and is much less less obvious to everyone that you are trying to cover a smell: Pop 1 or 2 Altoids in your mouth and suck on them for a minute to get them going good them hold them between your teeth (so they don't burn your tongue) and breathe thru you mouth (be careful not to breathe to deep...the vapors can cause a bronchiospasm).

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Originally posted by kids-r-fun

BTW...I know something that has always worked better for me than Vicks and is much less less obvious to everyone that you are trying to cover a smell: Pop 1 or 2 Altoids in your mouth and suck on them for a minute to get them going good them hold them between your teeth (so they don't burn your tongue) and breathe thru you mouth (be careful not to breathe to deep...the vapors can cause a bronchiospasm).

Or you'll be so high you won't care. :specs:

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I do not have a good sense of smell- have always said that is an assett in nursing. Sometimes, really bad smells get to me (mostly that rancid skin fold cheese stuff).

But I have a rather peculiar aversion for a nurse- blood. Obviously, I can handle some blood, but man, DO NOT start cutting in front of me- no even a skin biopsy. I have left the OR with more assistance than some of the patients. In the small hospital I worked at, I would gladly manage the babysit the entire med-surg floor and CCU just to stay out of the ER when a bad accident came in.

Poop, mucous, wounds so deep you can see the other side. dirty feet, dentures- no problem. Just don't let there be >100cc fresh, red blood.

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Specializes in Med-surg; OB/Well baby; pulmonology; RTS.

I can tolerate most things....but poop, sputum, and vomit in large amounts....EWWWWWW:uhoh21:

I have to hold my breath to empty a bedpan full of poop (you know-the ones the size of cow patties!!!) EWWWWWW:imbar

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Specializes in ER, NICU, NSY and some other stuff.

I hate phlegm and mucous and the sounds that go along with them. Just want to heave ate the thought.

But, THe worst of the worst for for me is Nose bleeds. I am not talking about your run of the mill busted nose. I am talking 70 year old guy on coumadin. The ones tha cough out those liver sized blood clots out of their mouths:eek: .

Those are about the end of me.

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Specializes in Rural Hospital (we do it all).
Originally posted by semstr

I think that bubbling, cracking might have been gasgangreen?

Had a patient with that once, I'll never forget that sound, smell, feeling and look!

Right you are, semstr! That creapy, crawling sensation (crepitus) that I could feel, was being produced by gas gangrene. But with all that snap, crackle and popping , I'd have to go along with Furball and call it a full-blown case of Rice krispies.

Baseline was right about crepitus. It has the uncanny ability to wobble your gastric stabiliy. I was swallowing hard to maintain my breakfast when I heard a different sound.....incomprehensible....like maybe it was coming from under the bed. So I got down on my knees, looked under the bed.....nothing there. But to my utter dismay, I realized where this despicable, rustling sound was coming from. It was coming from under my patient!

"Holy Moly---this is not gonna be good", I thought to myself. I should have called for some back up, but that part of my brain must had already checked out .

Barf-bags ready?

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You are so cruel to drag this out!

I am so ready for the rest of your story...of course I have already eaten dinner...

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