first time I went to the ward on clinical practice...

My very first day in a surgical ward. My very first day as a practising nurse in a real live hospital. How exciting! I was finally one of those glamorous, all merciful nurses like on television. I could not have been more wrong.
I had no idea I would be required to manually bathe patients. It simply never occurred to me. I mean, possibly the stench of human excrement as you walk through the doors of the ward may give you a hint that the excrement will have to be disposed of and that is a nurses job. Ah , well, I guess I am a little slow on the uptake.
In any case, I guess I misread the job description when I applied for a BSc in nursing because I certainly did not think I would ever have to scrub centenarians for a living. To make matters worse, this task requires a certain amount of skill and learning. Therefore a senior nurse whisked me off to one of the old ladies’ rooms to get the ordeal over and done with.
However this was not done before I was clad in an apron and gloves. I started to smell a rat, among the many others things I could smell in that ward: excrement, urine, vomit, blood and now a rat. The cogwheels of my mind started to churn. The apron was to protect my uniform, all well and good. But gloves? Then it all fell upon me like a ton of bricks. These old people are going to be putrid, envaginated in bodily juices, bitten by bacteria and fucked with filth. And I will have to remedy the situation.
I pull back the curtain and I close it in shock. I was presented with an old woman, four times my size and completely nude, her breasts sagging down to her thighs, her white pubic hair glistening through the mucous in the bright clinical light above. I felt my stomach rise to my throat. I closed my eyes. Please God let this be a nightmare! But I opened my eyes and the stark hag was still there. I had no choice. I had to wash her.
I grabbed the face cloth and soap and it really was not so bad. At least she was not bloody or wallowing in her own shit so I counted my blessings. Then, my aged playboy centrefold dropped a bomb:
“Wash me well between my legs! It needs to be scrubbed!”
I said to myself, ok, that’s it, I’m taking a BA in anthropology! I took the face cloth and scrubbed. I thanked God for gloves and a strong will.
I have no idea why, but I turned my head to see the expression on my patient’s face, to see if she was just as embarrassed as I was. Needless to say, she wasn’t. The disgusting old fuck was enjoying it. She even had this disgusting orgasmic smile on her disgusting hairy old face and she was playing with her disgusting hanging tits!
Well, I finished her off and walked out of the room with the senior nurse. I was in a state of shock. My first day on the job and I already wanted to quit. We went for our half hour break and for some reason I could not eat anything with melted cheese on it.
The senior nurse told me that I’ll get used to this in time. The thing is, does an eighteen year-old really want to get used to seeing atrocities? Well, I guess I did. And I still do. Which is why this episode is my first and not my last.
Pica