Fainting at the sight of blood, should I still be a medical student?

[Lifeinscrubs]

Hi, I'm a high school student looking for a potential career in medicine. I've never had a problem with blood or dissection, etc. My mom is a nurse so she loves watching medical shows with a ton of gross surgeries, so I was always used to that kind of stuff. And in high school anatomy class, I've never been grossed out or disturbed by the things we've dissected. However, I fainted for the first time in my life about a week ago, because I was cutting some bread, got distracted, and sawed pretty deep into my finger. It was gushing blood, so I rushed to the sink to clean it ad I put pressure and whatnot. As my sister was placing a bandaid on it, I fainted. I've never fainted due to blood ever, even when I've cut myself, or when others around me bleed excessively. I've even witnessed someone crack open their skull in a sports injury in person, (there was blood everywhere) but I've never reacted like this. I really want to continue to pursue a career in medicine, and hopefully become a doctor, but I don't want to waste my time and the realize that I can't do it. Is this common in student doctors? Was it just a one time thing? Will it be a problem for me? Is there anything I can do to overcome it? I've never bled this much, do you think its possible that I only faint at the sight of my own blood, but not at others?

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[I'm No Superman]

Hi, I'm a high school student looking for a potential career in medicine. I've never had a problem with blood or dissection, etc. My mom is a nurse so she loves watching medical shows with a ton of gross surgeries, so I was always used to that kind of stuff. And in high school anatomy class, I've never been grossed out or disturbed by the things we've dissected. However, I fainted for the first time in my life about a week ago, because I was cutting some bread, got distracted, and sawed pretty deep into my finger. It was gushing blood, so I rushed to the sink to clean it ad I put pressure and whatnot. As my sister was placing a bandaid on it, I fainted. I've never fainted due to blood ever, even when I've cut myself, or when others around me bleed excessively. I've even witnessed someone crack open their skull in a sports injury in person, (there was blood everywhere) but I've never reacted like this. I really want to continue to pursue a career in medicine, and hopefully become a doctor, but I don't want to waste my time and the realize that I can't do it. Is this common in student doctors? Was it just a one time thing? Will it be a problem for me? Is there anything I can do to overcome it? I've never bled this much, do you think its possible that I only faint at the sight of my own blood, but not at others?

Well, unless you plan on pulling a House and operating on yourself, you should be fine considering that it's usually the patients that bleed and not the doctors.

 

[mmmcdowe]

Lots of medical students get woozy when having their blood drawn. I wouldn't worry too much.

 

[nysegop]

1. You will probably get used to it half way through the first year.
2. Just go into a non-surgical specialty. Ideas: Psychiatry, Pediatrics, Neurology, GP, etc.

 

[AntiHouseMD]

You cut open your finger. Why wouldn't you faint at that? Like INS said, unless you plan on doing this on a regular basis, you should be fine. Just don't injure yourself too often.

 

[OCDOCDOCD]

Generally speaking, if there's blood coming from anywhere other than the patient then something has gone terribly, terribly wrong.

Anyway, I wouldn't worry too much about being sensitive to this sort of thing. I consider myself to be a pretty level headed person when it comes to gore and I still nearly fainted several times when I watched my first rat perfusions. Just something about seeing a still-beating heart in an eviscerated animal got to me (that or the immense sleep deprivation...probably a mix of both). Nowadays though I do my own perfusions without issue. Granted those are animals, but my point still stands that after enough exposure you get used to it and eventually copious amounts of blood and pulsing organs will seem utterly banal.

 

[QuizzicalApe]

Fourth year med student here. After passing out once while having my blood drawn, because of how little I enjoy needles, I now make sure I am more or less lying down whenever anyone needs me to give blood.

I also had a similar instance to yours. I had passed out after injuring my finger. Namely, I was helping someone move a bed, tripped, and dropped the bed on my finger, with my finger (and the bed) having the fall broken by a cinderblock. Good times.

That being said, I never had any problems during my surgery rotation, or in the surgical obgyn stuff, or during traumas.

It's amazing how much easier it is to deal with blood when it isn't coming out of you or causing you any pain.

 

[davidbm95]

It could also be psychological. Just tell yourself you won't faint you'd be surprised what the brain can do.