WARNING: some content are gross

    I am on a morning shift duty at the emergency room of a certain hospital. Everything went quite well this morning until I came back after my lunch break (rarely happens in ER). Everyone was already scurrying, the room explodes with activity as more and more patients are rushing in. Of course, it is to be expected in an emergency room.

    Just the way I love it. Perhaps working in 911 or Emergency room would be my option next to working as an OR Nurse. Operating Room is strictly clean, disinfected and sterile, a room which is very contradictory to the Emergency Room where you’ll find all the disgusting stuff. Not just blood, but stools, phlegm, vomit and discharges all in different colors and smell.

    I swear I could sit next to a bloody open corpse and still eat my lunch. I could even stare at the sight of a hanging eyeball without blinking. I could examine a person’s bloody abdomen with his gut coming out. I could look at anything gross, but the smell I couldn’t take it.

    The horrid smell inside the ER has the ability to pass through layers and layers of the mask I’m wearing - makes me really sick. Nobody likes the smell of urine. Nobody likes the smell of a poop. Nobody likes the smell of a mouth that gives out a horrendous breath. Nobody likes the smell of someone who hasn’t bathed for a week. Nobody likes the smell of a decaying wound that smells like a rotten egg. It really makes me sick.

    That’s ER. It’s perfectly normal. I need to have a stronger stomach to endure all of these day by day.

    Yet, no matter how sickening the emergency room can be, I still love what I’m doing. The vigor, thrill, teamwork and the aim to save lives is what persists to drive my daily passion for this kind of profession. Each patient I met is different and the knowledge needed to care for every new patient is something I know I will be learning better through time and experience.