SO, as you may know, I'm going into nursing...my long term goal is to be an RN in the ER. I know that I will see some pretty "gross" things in the ER. SO, my idea is to try to desensitize myself to gore. However, twice now, I've gotten pretty nauseous looking at pics online. I asked my mom if she thought I was crazy and she didnt' think so, she said it was part of desensitizing myself....But I'm not sure, lol

Do you guys think the idea of trying to desensitize myself is dumb?

No, I don't. In fact I think it's extremely smart on your part to try it. I wouldn't overload yourself with nasties, but I'm sure my dad (who started out as a nurse in the ER that fainted the first time a serious car accident victim came in) wishes he would have done the same!

There are tons of things you'll see there and it would be in your favor to lessen the shock factor.

I'd honestly think that if this is something you're going to love doing -then when it comes down to it - it won't bother you all that much...

Kind like how changing your own kids diapers isn't quite as gross as other peoples...

well, i can change a diaper like its no ones business, lol I was an aid for 5 yrs. Bed wounds, caths, that doesn't bother me...I was talking about some SERIOUSLY gross stuff....the site I was looking at was a page w/ death pics, suicide, ect...decapitations, people ran over by a train, heads ran over by an army tank, ect. I know i'm not going to have to deal w/ maybe those cases, but people w/ their legs cut off maybe and things of that nature.

In that case, I'm not sure I would flood myself with those types of images. Might end up with some kind of post-traumatic stress disorder or something. I mean, a lot of soliders from war come home traumatized because of all the killing and violence they've seen. Maybe take it easy... or look up pics that are only of leg wounds and the like?

Is it possible for you to do any kind of internship or volunteer work at a local hospital to see what types of cases they get? or talk to the people who work there and see what comes in?

I don't imagine there are lots of army tanks in your neighborhood -

you'd probably get more along the lines of suburban idiot type emergencies - people blowing off limbs with firecrackers, alcohol poisoning, once spring comes, people hurting themselves with lawncare equipment or the occassional nail gun injury... ya know - fun stuff tales you'll be able to tell of stupid human tricks

desensitizing to some degree is good... but you want realistic too...

Yea, i'm not going to overload myself with those images, just trying to build up some kind of stomach for it.

The intership is a good idea, maybe once I start my nursing classes (this fall) I'll look into it?

Gore sites are probably the only chance you'll get other than hanging out in the ER voluntarily but I doubt that's allowed.

Gore sites won't let you do 'hands on' so it's hard to say how you'll react later on anyway. I had my own 'era' of daring myself to visit gore sites, other than fucking up a perfectly good computer or two, I got through it. I'm over it now. It is amazing how people do themselves ugly, very captivating to study.

Most of the those sites cleaned up their acts over the years with security. They want the traffic so they stepped up security over the years. If you don't run McAfeeSiteAdvisor, you should and it's free.

Which reminds me, since Sean changed URL's, this site is now a gray site (use to be green before). He may wish to submit site testing to upgrade to green status. It can only increase traffic.

I work in a hospital, pc tech. I absolutely hate going into the ED because of some of the things I've seen.

If that's what you wanna do. It's a good idea to look at some of the things you'll be dealing with so you won't be surprised. Being a pc tech; I didn't think much of it, wish I had...