Are pretty much all doctors and nurses completely desensitized to blood, guts, vomit, etc.?

In My Humble Opinion
21

My ex-wife was a medical professional. She had been through Anatomy classes, dissected a human, and wasn’t bothered at all by what the human body looked like inside, nor by any substance the human body could leak, excrete, ooze, expectorate, or otherwise emit.

She could be very cold and clinical at times. Once, when we were getting ready for bed, we were discussing a recent TV news story about female reproductivity. I was a little confused by it, and asked a simple question. She stripped down to nothing, and proceeded to point out where in her body her uterus was, and where her fallopian tubes were, and her ovaries; and a few other things I’d rather not mention. Not what I wanted to hear at that time. Kind of killed the mood.

But it was also a blessing, at times. She did a lot of her ear, nose, and throat work on deceased cats (human cadavers are expensive, and a cat has pretty much our ENT structure, though smaller); and when our cats needed veterinary attention, she could speak with the vet on a professional level. All the medical terms and Latin they used in the course of an exam or procedure would go clear over my head, but she “translated” it for me later. She understood what the vet was saying. Somewhat similarly, I remember once needing a root canal. I didn’t quite understand what the dentist was saying, so I asked her. She got out her copy of Gray’s Anatomy, and using the illustrations, showed me what the dentist was planning to do. Coldly and clinically, while I turned green.

I think it depends on the person, and what attracts them. She never mentioned “de-sensitization” courses; she was just plain fascinated by biological science and medicine. I wasn’t. I was fascinated by history, political science, and law; and she could not understand those at all. I get it–I have represented some really reprehensible people in court–and I’ve had to separate my own feelings, coldly and clinically, from the job I have to do for my clients. I suppose she has to do the same things, for her patients. We may have broken up, but she taught me the value of “cold and clinical,” when the matter calls for it.

22

It’s the formaldehyde that gets to me too, I helped my dad clean fish, rabbits, chooks and many other animals from a young age and it never affected me but in high-school when we had to dissect rats I almost vomited from the smell of the formaldehyde

23

What gets me is sputum. I can deal with blood and stool and even abscesses but I hate the texture of sputum and I don’t understand why people can’t just tell me the color. You really really don’t have to show me. Please do learn your colors, though. Red, yellow, tan, green, white and clear are all colors to describe sputum. Dark and cloudy are descriptive terms but they are not colors.That said, the only times I’ve had to ever take a break or let on that something bothered me with draining abscesses. I don’t see how people can voluntarily watch those pimple popping shows. I can do it but I wouldn’t want to watch it if I didn’t have to. Once as a student in the ER I almost passed out and had to sit down (didn’t get my best grade in that rotation).

24

I’ve gotten over most queasiness over gore. But gas gangrene still makes me gag.

25

My cousin met her husband when they dissected the same cadaver in medical school.

My father was a veterinarian, and I used to work for him as a kennel boy and assisted in surgery, so gore and guts don’t bother me, at least in animals. Unfortunately, he was on the state licensing board, and would take slides of interesting cases to use in the examination process for prospective vets. But sometimes he left them mixed in with his other pictures. So we would be going thru the vacation slides, and it was “here is your mother and I in Hawaii”, “here is the boat that we rode down the river”, “here is a tumor I took off a dog’s optic nerve”, which rather took my wife aback but the rest of the family were rather blasé about it.

Regards,
Shodan

26

My daughter, a nurse, has spent her career in obstetrics and pediatrics. She has work in pediatric oncology, dealing with things I wasn’t even aware of, truly horrid medical situations, and she loves it. She says it allows her to make a big difference in the quality of her patients’ lives.
ETA: Meanwhile, my son works in a prison. For the paycheck and access to a great gym.

27

I think most of us still have something that makes us go “yuck”. Mine has to do with respiratory secretions. The patient who’s coughing thick mucous out through their trach. Respiratory therapy deep suctioning someone so that it makes horrible slurpy sounds. Both of those have me literally turning my head and working hard to control my gag reflex. It’s also fairly common for nurses to trade tasks on their patients to avoid the thing they personally hate dealing with.

28

I seem to remember our vet once offering to teach me how to express our dog’s anal glands.

I decided that was a bridge too far, so to speak. :smack:

29

I worked at the mortuary at the front desk, but would often go into the prep room and saw a guy whose head was crushed by a bus and he been autopsied so his body was open with nothing inside. There was also a girl who jumped from a building and hit a few balconies on the way down. Her head was crushed, she was opened because of the autopsy and she looked like a rag doll as the guys were moving her around to embalm her.

There was a a bit of blood when the embalming needle (actually more like a small tube) is inserted and is moved in and out, but since the embalming fluid is pink (to give color back to the body) it’s not really noticeable until the fluid in the tube going out turns red.

I’m not bothered by the dead, people or animals, but seeing someone alive bleeding does bother me.

30

I’ve posted this before, but the morning I saw the guy run over by the bus, the mortician was drinking his coffee talking about he needed it to get going. I’m ashamed of myself now (sorry guy on the table!) but I made a joke about wanting ribs because his chest was open.

31

Back in 1954, when my mother was pregnant with me, she, as an RN, was simply unable to treat a patient who had gas gangrene. She was at the urpy stage with me, and couldn’t take the smell coming from the patients’ leg.

32

Dupe

33

My father was a MD. He was not desensitized, and always hated blood and gore. He went into a field that didn’t have much blood. I’m sure he could deal with it when he had to, but he was never nonchalant about it.

So, not 0%.

34

Oh Beck you gotta see this: working where the sun don't shine - Google Search

35

I can’t speak from experience, but as with any job, there are advantages and disadvantages and you decide what you can live with and what you can’t. As a high school student, my mother was planning on becoming a doctor (she says she was groomed toward this career goal by her mother). Not long before the time came to actually go to university, though, she found out that, in her own words, “I would have to dig inside dead bodies”, which made her decide not to go to medical school but instead study mathematics (she eventually became a computer programmer).

The excellent 1989 film “Gross Anatomy” starring Matthew Modine, Daphne Zuniga and Christine Lahti offers an insight or two into how medical students deal with having to dissect corpses.

For the record, I once had the unpleasant experience of going for a hemorrhoid examination. Afterwards, I asked the doctor: “Do you actually enjoy picking at people’s butts?” His answer was simply: “Someone has to do it.”

36

When I worked in a hospital I was overwhelmed by it the first day. After that, I wasn’t.

I’m a father of three, and I have seen more blood, vomit, and poop just getting my kids from birth to toilet training than I could possibly estimate. I saw my wife have a C-section; I’ve seen projectile vomiting at birthday parties. Compared to that, cleaning up an elderly stroke victim who couldn’t control his bowels was nothing.

37

Because we don’t have Smell’o’Vision, that’s why.

38

Since there are many doctors who are clinical researchers, I’m going to venture that there are several who would not do well in the presence of actual human innards not reduced to a picture on a slide.

39

Exactly correct. I actually enjoy suctioning, it makes me feel as if I’m accomplishing something. C-diff, blood, pus, pseudomonas, any sort of wound…bring it on.

But if someone starts vomiting it’s all I can do to not join in.

40

Since that thread about peri-ungual warts is just above this one, I should add that Dr. Pimple Popper said that the one procedure she just.cannot.do is take off a nail, and refers those cases to her husband, who is also a dermatologist.

Here’s a video of her doing something that does not involve, as Dave Barry put it, popping zits the size of cantaloupes. Definitely SFW.