Types of Poisons If you have not encountered a patient that was accidentally poisoned, prepare yourself because you most likely will. Accidental poisonings are not that uncommon, and unlike on TV, in most cases they truly are accidental, rather than someone setting out to get rid of them. Poison Groups There are three main poison groups: health products, biological, and agricultural. Health products will be drugs of any type. This is the most common of the poisonings. This can include drug overdoses, intentional or otherwise. It can also include a patient that takes a drug that interacts with another drug. This is a fairly common occurrence among elderly people. This type of poisoning can range from minor to serious, and even deadly. Agricultural poisoning is plant or animal based. There are a number of plants that are poisonous, and each year animals and children consume these plants all too often. In most cases they can be saved, however not in every case. A good suggestion would be for anyone that has curious pets or young children, just avoid plants that are poisonous. The last group is chemically based which includes household products. A number of cleaning products are poisonous, and should always be kept under locks when there are young children present. Some very common household poisonings are pesticides and household cleaners. Related: Taking Proper Care of Your Scrubs Poison Control Center The poison control center is available to answer non-emergency questions. If poison has been ingested it’s time to call 911. The poison control center can advise in advance if something is safe to ingest, or say for instance a patient accidently takes an extra vitamin, and they have a question on what harm it could cause. This does not actually require a call to 911, the poison control center could put the patients mind at ease. In this particular instance, most vitamins would not be toxic and no harm would be present. The exception could be if the vitamins had an extra dose of iron, that could create nausea. Poison control is very used to answering questions such as that, and in most cases, they are not serious. Occasionally they receive a call that requires emergency treatment, and the center has the ability to alert the local emergency department. Many people question why, some products claim to be safe for the environment and nonpoisonous, while others have very prominent warnings
on them. Why not make them all safe? It’s simple, do you want really clean, or do you want safe? It really does come down to that, in order to kill those germs and harmful bacteria, the product is most likely going to be poisonous to anyone that ingests it. The same for insect sprays, if it kills bugs, you can be sure at the least it’s going to make humans sick. In many cases the smells may alert that the product is not safe to consume, however that can be somewhat misleading in some cases. Antifreeze has been a very common poisoning over the years, it has a sweet smell, a sweet taste, and many look like a lime Kool-Aid type drink. Of course, we cannot forget intentional poisonings. If you watch the crime shows on TV, you have seen these cases, and they are not that different in reality. There was a case several years ago that a man was admitted to the hospital ill, and the doctor could not determine the problem, just that he was getting worse by the day. After a stay of 8 days the family was told the man would probably not make it, his health deteriorated daily. Then, thanks to an alert nurse the reason was discovered. The nurse began to notice that each time the man’s wife visited, he became worse, so she popped in the room without knocking, and sure enough she found the wife injecting a substance into the patients IV. His life was saved thanks to the nurse, and the wife could possibly be reading this article right now, from her jail cell. Poisonings are tragic because in most cases they could be avoided. If you have a patient that has been poisoned, you should watch as the poison works its way out of their system and they get on the road to health. There are certain plants that can kill anyone or anything that consumes them in within the hour. Unless someone is a botanist or an expert in plants, they should never assume a plant is edible, even in small quantities. Patients should also be warned about herbs. Just because they come from a vitamin store, in excess they can be toxic. If in doubt, do not consume.
Related: Highly Regarded Registered Nurse Wendy Webb, RN, BSN, will be Featured in the Worldwide Leaders in Healthcare Please follow us on Facebook, Linkedin, Pinterest, Twitter