Sunday, March 28, 2010

Sunday morning rounds

Looking through the chart on a new consult. 22 year old female, who suffered a concussion yesterday.

I went in to see her. She had a HUGE bruise on her forehead, a few stitches at the hairline, and looked vague familiar.

Dr. Grumpy: "What happened?"

Miss Concussion: "I was upstairs doing a student nursing rotation yesterday, and had begun throwing up after seeing a lot of blood, when I got really lightheaded and remember falling toward the sink..."

31 comments:

Karen said...

Haha, just to make sure I am understanding this right: this is the same nurse from your last post before this one?

Anonymous said...

I really hope that she doesn't read this blog... this is some funny stuff.

Kim said...

Yeah....sounds like it's time to pick a new major....I would think you would have to be kind of immune to the whole faint-when-you-see-blood thing as a nurse, or in any health care related field for that matter.

Hope she's ok though! That must've hurt!

Alison said...

Oh that poor girl. LOL

Alpine, R.N. said...

teeheehee

As a nursing student, I have now caught THREE of my classmates as they fell down for various reasons. It has been suggested they go either into public health or work in an office.

Earl said...

Her story sounds familiar.

instant student said...

You GOT to be kidding!!
That's awesome! :D

(but I do feel sorry for her)

Anonymous said...

Literal LOL!

...Seriously time for a career change. (Poor girl.) Maybe getting her as a patient was karma for laughing at her yesterday? Hope she doesn't run you ragged :).

stewbert said...

Oh ... my ... stars ... that's hysterical. I laughed so hard, my 10-year-old made me tell her what was going on. She said student nurses should prepare themselves for the sight of blood. haha.

Grumpy, M.D. said...

Yeah, it was her. I feel bad for her. Nice girl.

Anonymous said...

there are so many triggers. what is worst? blood, stool, melena, pus, phlegm, necrotic pressure sore, cautery smoke? mine is dead bowel.

Anonymous said...

I don't mean to laugh, it's not funny to get a concussion, but I can't help it. Poor girl! (My verification word is "pationt" --- the nursing student isn't a student now, she's a pationt."

That Mouse said...

ah, we all have to start somewhere. I still have stage fright after 15+ years of concert performance but I still go out there onstage.

bobbie said...

LMBO!!!

terri c said...

She could always go into management? I hope she recovers OK.

Maha said...

Oh poor girl!! I feel so bad for her! Public health nursing maybe her cup of tea :)

Anonymous said...

Too funny!! I laughed at the last post, but I REALLY laughed out loud at this one!! Great reading. Thanks Dr. Grumpy. Made my day!

Anonymous said...

oh the joys of being a student!

CrownedwithVictory said...

So if you faint at the sight of blood, you shouldn't be a nurse? Cannot it be overcome? Consider a mom who used to gag from the smell of vomit, but now cleans it up and comforts her barfy smelling child without a qualm. I certainly hope this blood aversion can be overcome in the same way, because I am in school to be a nurse and I worry about seeing the "gross" stuff.

Gen said...

Of course she can overcome this. She needs to practice, by exposing herself to the sight of blood. And you'd think she'd know by now if she's got a problem with blood. Maybe she was just having an off day.

I'm a little miffed that no one followed her into the bathroom to make sure she was ok. It sounds like it was obvious to others that she was having some sort of vasovagal response to the sight of blood. She could have been seriously injured. Instead, people stood around laughing at the newbie.

Sigmoid Freud said...

She can definitely overcome it. We've all been there and it is usually when we are least expecting it. I had horrible fears of passing out from blood and pathology but somehow survived. I remember one of the best students I worked with having to leave during a thoracentesis, and there wasn't even any blood. The worst time for me was actually a relatively small abcess - the smell made me start wreching. Hopefully she'll be okay - both regarding the concussion and the reaction to blood.

Alpine, R.N. said...

Crowned, in my experience as a nursing student myself, each of us has "something" that we really really REALLY hate to deal with. My friend Alison cannot deal with mucus plugs without serious difficulty. Jake hates feet. I really REALLY hate emesis...and GI bleed stool. You just find ways to deal with it, and/or trade your friends for the things THEY can't deal with.

Life in vet school said...

Give her a break, guys! Who knows, she might turn out to be a fabulous ICU nurse. A lot of vet students pass out during the first surgeries they scrub into or bad emergencies they assist with, and almost all of them adjust perfectly well and go on to have successful surgical careers.

Granted, she does seem to have been having quite a bad day. :)

Grumpy, M.D. said...

Gen- actually, another person did rush in to check on her.

Jerri said...

I get that the story is funny, but practical jokes that end in someone getting hurt just aren't funny to me. Guess you're old when "It's all fun and games till someone loses an eye" actually makes sense.

Jo said...

Poor thing. What an awful thing to have to live down.

One of my friends is a nurse now, and was a student on rotations on my floor years ago. She'd watched a particularly gory bedside procedure (can't remember what) and was fine until she got out to the nurses' station. She passed out suddenly right there.

We never let her forget it. She's a trauma nurse now.

Seriously, though? After eight years, there are still things that can freak. me. out. Like walking into a room and not being sure where all that blood is coming from, and if it's still coming out of the patient.

Grumpy, M.D. said...

Jerri- it wasn't a joke. Just bad timing.

When they sent her into the room, they just assumed he was going to ask for something minor.

sandy shoes said...

We should all be so lucky, to get such clear signals about what careers to pursue or avoid!

donna said...

LMAO !! I am sure she will get
used to it. My mom did. For her
RN req she had to view a surgury...
could not do it ... too gross..(go
figure). The surgeon gave her a pass
and in her 30 year career never had
a problem since. Though she never
went near an o.r. Closest was e.r.
hehe

student dr. blaze said...

rotfl lmao pimp!!!!

that made my day. :-D

MOJITOGIRL said...

I went through nursing school with a veteran scrub tech who worked at an eye hospital. She did pretty much the same thing, had to tough love her through clinicals. The irony was, eyeballs and anything remotely associated gives me the barfies, queasies....you get the picture. She graduated and went back to doing eyeballs. I graduated and went on to clean poop and blood and gore.

Everybody finds their level of comfort. Give me a badass trauma anyday.

Just spare me the eyeball stuff

 
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