Hey Nurses,

We're sure that you've seen some pretty gross things in the hospital, but this week we're wondering about another of the 5 senses that takes a beating...your smell. 

So, what's the GROSSEST smell to ever grace the olfactory during a shift? I'm sure there are a few beyond the code browns. 

Tell us!

Oh, I forgot this one. Eroding cancer. Being a cancer nurse, I should have thought of that one first. We have had more than one patient where the flesh is decaying from cancer, and we have to do dressing changes. The smell is something I just can't describe. It will take your breath away. I have started wearing masks with a little lavender or peppermint aromatherapy tucked into a little gauze. We are sensitive. If we wear masks like that, the patient is usually unconsious. I wouldn't hurt their feelings for the world.

Gross, Gi bleed is unmistakeable!!!

I can handle the GI bleeds, the cancers, the code browns, the gangrene... MRSA infected wound is by far the worst smell I've ever encountered! It's definitely one you never forget!

Working on a surgical floor, changed many dessings where gangrene was present.  If there was a large amount of drainage on the dressing, one does not forget that odor ever.

I particularlly remember one time I was still in school. I was asisting in a surgery of an old man! At a certain time the doctor started to cut with the electrocauter and the smoke just hit me in the nose so hard that it made me leave the or for a couple of minutes. It was the first and only time my stomake played trics on me.

Also on desgusting smell category you can put certain tipes of terminal cancer and anal fistulas (wile operating them)  

I was working in the urgent care, you never know what's going to walk in the door from day to day. On this particular day a man came in reeking of Garlic. He was on a 3 day bender of alcohol consumption and thought that maybe a couple of garlic pills would help his headache. That didn't work so he took a couple more. He continued to do that until he took a whole bottle of Garlic pills. We had to put in the furthest room away from other people because he smelled so bad. After he left we had to open all the doors and air the place out for a few hours. Things people do when they are drunk!

Lori

I must say the smell of burnt skin is just unforgetable.   I was 16 and just a "candy stripper" working in the ED when a whole family mother father and three children were brought in by the squads.  All dead requireing to be pronounced and prepared for investigation.  Back then as a volunteer I got to see many things and after 33 years of nursing have been exposed to many more but none as rememberable as that one moment tagging and wrapping the victims in body bags.  sad and unforgettable.

After all my years in the ER, I would have to say it's a 3-way tie between GI bleeds, E. coli and Rotovirus!

Hello~~Wounds are terrible!!!

 Boy, these are some serious smells you guys....

This is so funny because it just happened to me today!!  I am still just a student but I have already witnessed, and yes, smelled MRSA wounds, gangrene, flesh burns and numerous brown episodes. Yet today, my poor patient was bowel incontinent and infected with a UTI.  I do not know what else is going on, but changing her briefs, actually made my eyes water and I had to turn and gag.  Even she had problems dealing with the odor and had me hunt down an air freshener!!  She is scheduled for a GI consult tomorrow!

One of the worse smells I have ever come across in a hospital is the smell of infected wounds especially when it is advanced; there is nothing I can even think that it resembles.

 Wow, you guys have had alot of smells assaulting your tender nasal passages.  I am somewhat thankful that 2 surgeries for nasal polyps has damped my sense of smell.  I do remember coming to work in the L&D and being overwhelmed by the smell of a bunch of placentas sitting in nasty bloody bowls, waiting to have the umbilical cords removed and the placentas placed in the freezers.  

Infected pressure sore, and patients with c diff.