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OH ...NURSE! Sharp, smelly, sickingly sweet; so were the smells back then. A hospital, shining stunningly black terrazzo floor. First day jitters trying to put into practice what we had learned these past few months. Rounds, rushing, relief, comical relief when a patient was asked, "Have you had your bowel movement today?" "Huh?" he replied. Instructor, innocuous, intelligent saw and heard our plight. She leaned over us and asked, "Have you had a shit today?" "Oh yes," the old vet replied happily. We resumed, rushing, reticent to say anything stupid. It was a whole new language. Words like abetalipoproteinemia, bradycardia, and creatinine to name a few of the thousand or so we had to memorize. It was a whole new world, new sights, and new rules to remember. We displayed our name tags proudly, "Student Nurse," and our starched whites, and shoes. We were the Class of '74. |
Additional Notes:
The sickingly sweet smell I refer to is ether. It pervaded the hospital in those days. Since at
least the latter part of the 70's, ether has been discontinued as the drug of choice, as
a sleep induction agent in the O.R. The
sharp smells were the various chemicals (mainly ethyl alcohol).
Terrazzo floors probably aren't used any more due to their cost and high maintenance. Starched
whites have just about gone out of existence much to my dismay.
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