Life in the ER

     Dim lights, eggshell colored walls, white tiles with splashes of green, and the scent of a freshly cleaned floor, its no other place than the Pottsville hospital. The word EMERGENCY in big red letters awaits you as you walk through the front door. Many believe that the doctors are the important people in hospitals, but really, the nurses are what keeps it going. Robin is one of those people, a nurse at the Pottsville hospital and has been for over 13 years.

     "I love my job, I wouldn't change it for the world," exclaimed Robin, with a slight Cuban accent, as she cleans off her snowman scrubs. Robin, who is tall, gorgeous, and has skin that was kissed by the sun, is constantly busy. She states, on average she sees, between 15-20 patients on a daily basis. With life how it is today, everybody always in a hurry and being selfish, aggressive drivers, its not out of the ordinary for a nurse, like Robin to see such a significant amount of patients in an eight hour period, ranging from the flu, to vehicular accident victims. "My favorite part of my job, is when we see leaving through those doors. I love knowing that we helped that person." She knew she wanted to become a nurse about 30 years when her grandfather was sick and a nurse would come everyday to help him. She said to her grandfather, "Popop, one day I'm going to be that lady so I could take care of you." Robin loves helping people and this is why she excels at her job.

      She states, "I think some people believe nurses are unappreciated, but in fact we really aren't." If one was to ask a civilian casually strolling down the street if they feel nurses are under appreciated, they would probably say yes. "Of course the doctors and surgeons make the big bucks and seems as if they only see the patients for just a moment, but they have much more knowledge than us," Robin voiced. Some may not know, but doctors have almost 12 years of schooling before they can practice their specialty. That is so much more knowledge and experience behind them, compared to a nurse's 4 years of schooling, so it sort of makes sense that a doctor would make a significant amount of money more a than a nurse. She includes, "They also have to take their cases home with them, and remember what patient takes what medication and all of their medical history." Getting into medical school is a tremendous feat itself and not to mention all of the late, caffeine filled nights studying while in med school. Doctors really do a lot of work, it just may seem different because not all people see what goes on behind the scenes. The nurses do the "dirty work" but that is what they signed up to do.

     A nurse has numerous jobs to do, especially in a hospital setting. "My job here is to do charting, which is pretty much assessing the patient, relay messages they tell me to one of our doctors on call, administer a drugs, stay on my toes incase of an emergency, all while keeping a smile on my face," Robin chuckles. Depending on the work environment, the job description of all nurses are pretty much the same, some more high stress, such as ICU nurses, and some more of a relaxed environment like an in home nurse. Robin paces from one room to the next as two patients, one in 239, the other, 242 ring their buzzers. After finishing in 242, she stops to take off her black Dansko clogs to rub her left foot, slides it back on and glides to 239. Clearly in some sort of suffering, she does all this while still keeping a big, beautiful smile on her face, like a child on Christmas morning.


     "I get along with all of our doctors and other nurses, there are some patients that test my last nerve, but I just put a smile on my face and continue to do my job the best I can,"she remarks. "I don't know how to does it, keeps a smile on her face when I know on the inside she wants to scream in their face," added Judy, another nurse at the hospital. To be a nurse, one must always keep their cool and never get frustrated, especially with patients, thats a great way to loose a good job. Working in a hospital is like working in any other place, the coworkers are almost like family. Everyday the same people, and over time they grow on you and eventually becoming best of friends.

     I notice a little wrinkled old man, with white hair walking around in his polka dotted gown pulling his IV stand around, like he was walking a dog. He said he was in there for chest pains, and significantly enough he was in room 239, the same room that Robin respond to just moments ago. Heart disease is the number one cause of death in the US, so it is not uncommon for any person to go to the hospital with chest pains. Carl was his name, and he states that, "The staff at the Pottsville hospital is some of the most friendly people I have ever met." He specifically mentions Robin as "the nicest and most beautiful nurse" that has treated him in his 76 short years on this Earth.  He has traveled all over the world with the Navy, and has seen many hospitals. "I expected them to treat me like another old fart on the street, but they actually took the time to talk to me and made me feel special, its a shame to say, but these people are nicer than my wife" declares Carl with a tiny grin on his aged face. After our talk, Carl waddles toward the elevator which "dings" about every 45 seconds.
  
     Sirens fill the air as a big red ambulance pulls up, and a large, muscular EMT dashes in with a patient on stretcher. "MVA," he yelled in a deep voice. About 4 nurses jump into action as soon as the EMT busted through the emergency room door, a doctor, in a lab coat and gloves in hand, followed not long after. "We need to get him to the OR," demanded the doctor. After everything settled down, the nurses returned to their station. Robin walked over and said, "See what I mean when I said stay on my toes."