Squeamishness?

I was talking to another medical applicant I met yesterday, and in conversation he mentioned that he was very squeamish. I didn't say anything at the time, but it thought it odd that someone who said he didn't like to watch a cannula being inserted would choose a career in which he would no doubt have to do such a thing (and many things 'worse') on a daily basis. That raises the question, what happens to people like him who go to medical school? Would they eventually get desensitised to it or just drop out/ transfer to a different course once they got heavily into clinical stuff?

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Reply 1

Charli_90

Maybe he's hoping that after a while of being heavily exposed to it it won't bother him any more? Maybe he's just weird... who knows...

Reply 2

Ender

He'll be fine after he meets his first cadaver- it is very rare for med students to faint the second time :biggrin:

Reply 3

bright star

the first time i saw a canula inserted i nearly passed out, as did my partner on a seperate occasion. it's gross. i can do it though. i say this everytime. i nearly passed out in my first week in clin skills giving injections to fake arms....

i can do both things on real people, it took about a week :p:

Reply 4

Democracy

On work experience they showed us a video of a hickman line being inserted. That made me feel a little queasy. I dunno though, the video was quite long, by the end of it, none of us really were that sqeuamish. Is that what you'd call desensitised? :s-smilie:

Reply 5

Renal

It's different when you have to do it.

There's peer expectation, patient expectation, fear of ****ing up, etc...

Reply 6

Democracy

^ that's very true too

Reply 7

petzneo

Hmm, well during a work experience, I nearly fainted when they were taking a sample of blood but I have to admit that after a while I got use to it..

Lol, tbh if you think that blood is bad, you should meet my friend, she fainted when the doctor was examining a distended stomach...weird or what?

Reply 8

digitalis

It's like people who get car sick, but rarely when they are driving. When your concentrating and your minds on actually doing something, tend not to feel so ill.

Reply 9

sozzberry

Yeah on my work experience this kid came in and his head was open from falling off a slide and he was crying and crying and then they started to stitch him up and I felt rather faint. But the next day when I say someones lip being stitched up I was alright. I think it is probably something you have to get used to to some extent.

Reply 10

gyrase

If your squeamish, you're in the wrong career to be blunt. You need to be senseless to be a good doctor to some extent.

Reply 11

Renal

VJ211

If your squeamish, you're in the wrong career to be blunt. You need to be senseless to be a good doctor to some extent.

U wot? :wtf?:

Reply 12

bright star

i'm not a squeamish person, i just have a bad thing about needles. i get fainty. but yeah you'll be fine. i don't know anyone who's not been fine in the end and we're only 2nd years. you just have to suck it up.

Reply 13

person 34

I have to deal with my gran's trachiostomy (sp?) loads which some people find discusting, but I find it absolutely fine. However, I won't disect a fish and I will disect a heart but I feel very sick doing it. I've also had to inject my Mum (LOL) which was fine but I can't watch myself being injected otherwise I feel very queasy.

Reply 14

gyrase

well I never feel squeamish, I regularly inject myself with epinephrine, its all about the boost. Yeh I guess its about getting used to things at first.

Reply 15

Flyingtreefrog

Blood, if that's what you're squeamish about, is actually a relatively 'clean' thing in medicine- it's all the other smelly bodily fluids that you gotta watch out for- I'm a second year I'm still hoping I will develop the nose for medicine.

Reply 16

bright star

VJ211

well I never feel squeamish, I regularly inject myself with epinephrine, its all about the boost. Yeh I guess its about getting used to things at first.

what?

Reply 17

~ Purple Rose ~

Ender

He'll be fine after he meets his first cadaver- it is very rare for med students to faint the second time :biggrin:

My sister's friend's sister fainted the first time, and wasn't really sqeamish!

Reply 18

Renal

~ Mandy

My sister's friend's sister fainted the first time, and wasn't really sqeamish!

My brother's girlfriend's cousin's mate fainted too...

People faint for all sorts of reasons in medicine, sometimes cos it's icky, sometimes cos it smells like rotting flesh (especially if it is rotting flesh), sometimes cos they're nervous, sometimes cos it's hot and sometimes cos they went out on the lash the night before and didn't catch breakfast.

Reply 19

Faywraith

Flyingtreefrog

A medical friend maintains that blood and cadavers are a breeze - all the icky things start with the letter 'p': phlegm, pus, piss, poo, puke and parasites. Or, in short, 'patients'. Apparently, live patients sometimes even have maggots... :s-smilie:

She became a psychiatrist - much cleaner! :wink:

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