Nausea, vomiting, and retching. Although nausea, vomiting, and retching have plagued mankind since antiquity, limited attention has been given to the three symptoms as separate entities. Although knowledge of symptom occurrence is essential to practice, nurses must focus on patients' response or distress to the occurrence of symptoms. The differentiation of symptom occurrence and symptom distress of nausea, vomiting, and retching is critical to the management and self-care demands of patients and the enhancement of their quality of life. Basic research on patterns of these individual symptoms and their components promises to provide a more progressive and fruitful approach to the patient response to these symptoms. 