Med students nauseating, fainting at sight of blood etc.: how do they learn to get over it?

For some people it would probably not be surprising. To others it might seem odd.

That even a small percentage of medical students experience nausea and even outright fainting spells while observing the course of surgery, cadaver dissection, or such, and all the blood, guts, and body parts involved.

A commonly reported number is that around 12 % of med students experience pre-fainting symptoms, or actual fainting when confronted with said blood and body parts.

An article that discusses this phenomenon:

https://hekint.org/2023/02/23/the-fainting-medical-student/

Highlights:

"The incidence of fainting in the operating room or dissection room has been studied. In a study of first-to-fourth(final) year medical students in Canada, 42% of 180 students experienced presyncope (pre-fainting) in the operating room, and 6% had actual syncope (fainting)."

"In a study of 630 fourth-and-fifth(final) year students in the UK, 12% experienced syncope or near-syncope in the operating room."

"Women were the majority of those who fainted in these three operating room studies."

"Medical students should be advised about techniques that may help to prevent fainting, such as keeping well hydrated, having a small meal before visiting the operating room (to prevent hypoglycemia from contributing to the problem), and not dressing too warmly."

"They also should not stand perfectly still, since movement of the legs will increase venous return to the heart and prevent the vasovagal reflex from happening."

But a common solution to the problem did emerge from almost all of the articles I saw: just keep looking at all the blood, and the surgeries, and the dissections, etc., over and over and over again, until one "finally gets used to it." That is, repetitive exposure.

Here are a couple of personal accounts of med students "getting used to it," or figuring out how to deal with it, with repetitive exposure being the common key:

https://www.youtube.com/shorts/cqfdocdgyc0

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=798p2vg19nc

It can even be an issue post training. A practicing nurse's perspective:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aurqimsh8ew

Or, regarding repetitive exposure, as the old saying goes, just keep getting back on the horse until he stops buckin' ya!

Yet it's sort of curious to imagine that the experienced, seasoned doctor that we may from time to time find seated in front of us may at one time early in his medical training days have been a student who fainted dead away once at the sight of blood.

But it could be possible.

But he persevered, to the point that frequently seeing blood became for him just another day at the office!

But to think about it, maybe it's not so strange. Whatever the career we once had (or still have), if we think back to our early training days in it, perhaps we remember some phase of it that seemed especially difficult or troublesome, but we too just persevered, and over time finally mastered it, and for us as well it became part of just another day at the office.

81GyGuy said...
But to think about it, maybe it's not so strange. Whatever the career we once had (or still have), if we think back to our early training days in it, perhaps we remember some phase of it that seemed especially difficult or troublesome, but we too just persevered, and over time finally mastered it, and for us as well it became part of just another day at the office.

I was a pilot in the Navy, and barfed on my first instructional flight. I was golden by my 10th or so. All about the exposure.

We had the Spatial Disorientation Trainer (aka the Spin and Puke) for those that needed further conditioning. You did not want to need further conditioning.

One of my first jobs out of high school was as a veterinarian technician. On my first day I assisted in surgery for an eye removal. I did OK and one just gets accustomed to it. However, when one of my kids fell and cut his hand on a piece of sheet metal, I had no problem loading him in the car and getting to the ER. Once he was safely in the hands of them, I about passed out.

BTW, prior to having my RALP, I found a training video online for urologists that showed the entire procedure through the images (2D) that the doctor sees. It was about 3 hours long. He explained the process, step-by-step, and I thought it was great and armed me with knowledge.