“Am I cut out to be a nurse?”

“Am I really cut out for this nursing thing?” We’re guessing it’s a question every future nurse has asked themselves at some point during nursing school, and for Johns Hopkins student Caitanya Min, it happened during a routine wound dressing.
“I initially looked at the wound and felt nothing. But let’s just say that that wound was… Wow. Before I knew it, nausea overwhelmed me,” Min said. “I asked myself: Should I be rethinking this nursing thing? If I can’t even handle the sight of huge wounds that look like raw ground meat, what hope is there for me?”

Almost a year later, Min was able to laugh about the incident…until it happened again, during a tracheotomy tube removal. This time, she was determined to figure out how to quell her queasy stomach once and for all.

“I did some searching online and apparently plenty of nursing students—and medical students—have become faint while watching something that did not agree with them,” Min said. “Does this make me feel better? I guess so. However, my ego is screaming, ‘You wimp! It’s not like his brains were spilling out all over the place!’ If only my body could listen and understand this ‘logic.'”

Nursing students (and seasoned nurses!), has this ever happened to you? How do you cope when your stomach starts to turn on the job? Any special tips and tricks you use on the regular? Let us know in the comments below.

This feature is brought to you in partnership with the Johns Hopkins University School of Nursing.