I have a desk job, and I am bored. I started looking into nursing as a second career because I would get satisfaction out of helping people feel better and would enjoy being on my feet instead of in a cubicle. I think nurses are heroes--I would love to join the club.
I job shadowed at two hospitals - one on a telemetry floor and one on a med/surg floor. They were two very different expereinces. I really liked being able to follow the nurses around and see what they did, but I started getting a little nervous on the med/surg floor when I watched a nurse change dressings on a very large staph infected C-section wound. I watched and the patient was in a lot of pain. I had to wear a gown and I started to sweat and feel a little weak in the knees. I watched till the nurse was almost done, but then I excused myself to get some air - I almost passed out!
Then I started thinking about the other things nurses do that are not so pleasant. The needles I can handle, but what about inserting cathetars and changing dressings? Do nurses get grossed out? Will I get over this? I guess I feel like nurses are made out of steel.
Julie
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December 4th, 2007 at 3:29 pm
Hey Julie!
I had similar fears when I started nursing school. I didn’t really know how I was going to react to certain things like blood and bodily fluids…etc.
I am now in my second year of nursing school and have had oodles of clinical time and have been around all of those things I feared. I am still building a ‘tolerance’ to certain things and yes, there are times when I may have to excuse myself for a breath of fresh air.
When I am in the thick of it, I try to put myself in the patient’s shoes. They are usually in pain, or their pride is hurt a bit when they are confined to bed pans, catheters, etc… It allows me to provide care/clean up at an angle of compassion instead of “this is going to be gross”.
Hope that helped!
December 4th, 2007 at 3:53 pm
Julie – the first time I ever saw a Stage 4 pressure sore I almost gagged. It didn’t help that I was gowned/gloved/masked. It was pretty nasty. I definitely have gotten better. I try to focus on what I am doing and how this is helping the patient, because chances are they are embarrassed by it.
It is definitely not a job for everyone but I wouldn’t trade it for the world!
December 6th, 2007 at 10:23 am
Thank you for your responses, I feel a little better. People keep telling me I will get over the ick factor and I hope they are right. I can think of a dozen reasons why I want to go into nursing and a few fears of the unknown are making me question. So I’m getting ready to take prereqs next semester at a Comm. College while I continue to work, so hopefully I will be ready to start an accelerated BSN in the spring of 09. And if in the meantime I decide otherwise, I’ve only givin up a few hundred dollars. That’s the plan.
December 6th, 2007 at 12:25 pm
I’m a senior nursing student, and there are some smells i don’t think you get used to, or could get used to. I’ve always been one to enjoy watching surgeries and the different types of wounds, but when you throw a smell in to it, it does make it hard. You just have to learn to hold it until you can get out of there and BREATHE. haha.
December 7th, 2007 at 8:25 am
It’s different when you’re doing it to when you’re watching it. Task focusing makes it easier to ignore the icky side as you concentrate on getting the procedure done.
It’s about the only time I can accept that a nurse might momentarily treat the patient like a ‘task’ when it is necessary to get the job done. Eventually tho you learn to treat the person, round about just after you get used to dealing with the icky stuff.
My job is slightly different because I don’t deal a lot with ‘icky’ fluids etc, but when dealing with an aggressive client or a madly and dangerously deluded one, my focus is on the immediate task at hand and not on the person as a whole. After the event tho, always go back to ‘the person’ and check on them, not the ‘problem’.
December 8th, 2007 at 8:55 am
Oh man the smells my poor nose has seen! But like the others say here, you focus on getting the job done, and wow, you get so desensitized, you won’t even raise an eyebrow or flick a nostril at a fowl smell.
Man, there was this one time that I had to guaiac some stool and almost spewed. Stool in commodes, toilets, hats have a predictable odor. But this one time, a parent brought in a sample wrapped in a couple of grocery bags, which had been baking in there for a good few hours. It was negative, but whatever that kid ate… man!
December 27th, 2007 at 11:35 am
true, you get used to the smell….except colostomy odor! whew!
December 30th, 2007 at 10:45 pm
hehe if you work in a nursing home, you will get used to the smell of urine and faeces, but even bad faeces still gets to me. What I cant stand is vomit, or someone gagging or phelgm, coz that will make me want to throw up. I think its that reflex action thingy lol.
My 3rd prac, I was standing there listening to the doctor and nurse talking to a patient and suddenly started blacking out and was like I GOT TO SIT DOWN lol. No wounds, nothing like that, just doctor patient stuff.
Then final prac, I was watching another student do a complicated dressing on a kid, and I was like woah I dont feel so good. The next day, I couldve done the dressing, but I told the facilitator I wasnt feeling so good, so he got the another student to do it, and I almost passed out then, even with wiggling the toes!
First year, we were shown a movie where these community nurses were on a job and found the client dead, locked in their unit, and so they had to get the fire brigade etc in to get the door down. They were saying that the smell of the decomposing body was rather horrific, and then I think it was a police officer suggested they put something nice smelling above their top lip, because they will only smell that smell, not the others…well it will be highly reduce.
December 31st, 2007 at 8:26 pm
i know of an EMT who shoves in a huge crap load of mints in his mouth when he’s dealing with vomit…it def. helps.
January 3rd, 2008 at 2:53 pm
I couldn’t stand the sight of blood when I went to nursing school. That changed….I graduated and became an ED nurse in a major city hospital and could stand everything but the smell of burned flesh (which made me vomit immediately and then I turned around and went back to work).
Every nurse I know gets queasy over something (for some it’s vomit; others hate sputum; for me it’s burned flesh). But being a nurse is the most rewarding profession I could imagine….after 30+ years.
January 5th, 2008 at 1:44 pm
i agree burnt flesh…whew! that is tops the worst! next is gi bleeds, colostomy, and some c-diff stool.
January 26th, 2008 at 11:34 pm
GI bleeds- no prob. Every single person has that special one thing that gets to them. Me?….stupid stuff like picking up a pt’s leg and not supporting the joint so the knee bends the wrong way cause their sedated…ughh! Wierd right?
January 27th, 2008 at 6:52 pm
Everyone has their buttons… when I was in nursing school in my L&D rotation I saw an epidural catheter placed while this woman was having contractions every 2-3 minutes.
Oh my god. The anesthesia residents couldn’t get the needle into just the right spot and they kept sticking this poor woman until the attending took over. I almost passed out TWICE during the insertion. They must have stuck her 5 or 6 times…
Now I’m on a postpartum/newborn nursery floor… I have to assist with arterial draws on infants for blood cultures.
My first time watching/assisting was while I was on orientation, the resident was having trouble finding the artery – which I can completely understand since a newborn’s arteries are about the size of a piece of thread! I asked my preceptor to take over for me and so I could get some air. She told me to just sit down on the floor where I was until I felt better – I was just that pale!
Since then I’ve done a couple more, and I still hate doing it, but I just make sure that I take a shot of orange juice and eat a couple of graham crakers before hand and then focus on the task at hand.
Oh, and I don’t look at the infant’s face during the procedure. Just focus on the insertion site and the collection equipment. Weird, but it helps me.
March 25th, 2008 at 8:11 pm
Hey all. I’m contemplating to start studying to become a nurse but the “queasyness factor” has always made me think a bit before actually commiting. Everyone I’ve ever known to be a nurse has told me that it is something that I will eventually get used to. It makes sense that seeing the patient as someone in need and in pain will somewhat lessen the queasyness. It’s good to hear that there is some hope. I hate to think that the fear of bodily fluids would stop me from pursuing an awesome career. So what do you all think? Should I just forget about my fears and go for it? I don’t want to be nearly done with my studies only to find out I can’t “hang” with the ickies.
Love,
Izzy
March 25th, 2008 at 11:42 pm
Izzy, let me paint you a picture. One Friday while I was in nursing school we were in the middle of a blizzard in Chicago. I was taking care of one old lady and my fellow student had the old lady in the other bed. Her old lady had a bowel mishap all over the floor. As my poor friend tried to figure out what do do, I stuck my head out the window and began the dry heaves. The bottom line is that poop stinks and mucus is gross and some wounds are kind of freaky. You just learn to suck it up and do your job. No mother ever gave up her baby because she couldn’t change a dirty diaper. You won’t give up nursing because you can’t hang with the ickies. I’m sure you’re tougher than you think.
Jana
March 26th, 2008 at 1:55 pm
Jana. Thank you so much for your frank response. I appreciate your input, and although it may have not been exactly what I wanted to hear, it most definetely gave me some hope. Thank you for taking the time to read and respond. It’s good to know there are peeps like you out there.
Shalom
March 28th, 2008 at 9:35 am
We had a patient the other day at work who was so scared of needles he wouldnt ask for pain relief after the IVC kept coming out coz he thought the pain relief would be in tablets…freaked out when we gave him IM ondansatron…started brearking out in huge sweats and shaking.
I cant look at needles going into me, but i can do other peoples needles fine.
March 28th, 2008 at 2:52 pm
Haha, yeah you do run into some patients that can’t tolerate needles. I find it particularly amusing when you have a heroin addict with track marks up his arms and tatoos all over tell you that he doesn’t like needles and gets all nervous when you go to start an IV on him…
April 12th, 2008 at 7:07 pm
Everyone has their button. For me its oral secretions – YUCK!
Just remember, nurses work many places. If theres one thing that really gets you, work somewhere that thing isnt.
ie- Dont like blood – stay out of the ER and OR.
dont like poop – stay out of ICU and nursing homes.