Life was not easy coming out of nursing school. I got married just after graduation and found myself raising a child. No, not one out of wedlock but one my wife had through a previous relationship. I later adopted him and found it was one of the best decisions I ever made. But back to the story.

After my brief honeymoon, I started my first nursing job. I was prepared or at least I thought I was. You see, like any other course of study there is the way you were taught and then there is the real world. On my first day I walked in the nice new building as an orientee, and the nice new building was bustling with activity. People were moving up and down the halls. Medicine was being passed to the residents. Cleaning crews were cleaning, and CNAs were performing care on their assigned people. Man, talk about walking in and being lost and scared.

I walked in and found the Director of Nursing as I was told to do upon hire. She took me to the time clock to clock in. As we did, I passed the therapy room. I noticed people collaborating with different therapists that had been stricken with all kinds of infirmities. I noticed the man who had a left side facial droop. I watched a therapist trying to help a man with a prosthesis on his right leg walk, and then I witnessed a group of staff working with a lady that was on the floor. Was she dying? Oh boy, what had I gotten into?

I continued following the woman to the time clock. When I interviewed, she was as sweet as molasses but now she seemed sour. When I walked in, she waved me over and motioned for me to follow her. She let me know that she would show me how to punch in and then head to my Procter. “What is a Procter,” I thought. The whole time we walked to the time clock she did not speak. Who was this woman? What happened to the merry little nurse that interviewed me?

We made it to the time clock, and she showed me how to work the machine. She went over a few of her timeliness rules and she turned and motioned for me to follow her again. We walked back to the therapy room. I noticed the woman who was on the floor was now up in a wheelchair, at least she was not dead I thought. We continued striding down the hallway and we got to the nursing desk. There were three people sitting there along with four people standing around. All eyes were on me, and they did not look like happy eyes.

“This is Chris. He is our brand-new nurse,” the D.O.N said.

“Hello, Chris.” A gruff voice said. I looked to my left and there was a middle aged, tall woman wearing glasses looking at me with disdain. Oh no. I hope she is not the one that I must train with, I silently prayed.

 “Hello. How are you?” I asked.

“I would be better if I didn’t have you trailing me all night!”  OOOOOHHHHHH BBBBOOOOYYYYY!