Walking Through a Building - RT Shores

When A Nurse Runs A Hospital... 

Hospital supervisors literally know where all the skeletons are hidden. Whether it be a real skeleton or who is having an affair; we know it all.

The first thing I do when they hand off the large ring of keys is match keys to locked doors and tag them with my own code. If a door won't unlock, unless it is administration, I make a note and find out what is in it and why can't I get to it.

I love the rooms, all the rooms; massive with supplies or tiny for dictation. I really love surprise rooms; doctor's private sleep rooms that I shouldn't have a key to and storage left behind from a time of sanding barbs off of reusable needles.

Of course, there are hazards when you have keys... say you need something from the operating room after hours, a special tray for a doctor maybe. You decide to enter through the nurse's lounge and then don your apparel so as not to contaminate the theaters. You turn the key, hear a commotion and then the door is slammed shut on you. You also happen to spy naked buttocks running out of the room.

It so happened I had come across a doctor and nurse affair... I never said a word, but had leverage on both, should I need it.

One problem with carrying that many keys is that people can always here you coming. I learned to hold them still when I wanted to sneak up on a nurses' station and make sure everyone was working. They still heard me coming. I found out it was my shoes and not the keys at all.

Stairwells are another great part of buildings. Elevators are boring and slow. I used to run the stairs to every call, unless I was laden with supplies or pharmaceuticals. It was great exercise and completely empty most of the time.

'Do Not Enter' signs didn't stop me anymore. I could enter anywhere, unless it was hazardous, of course. I was powerful, basically. With that power, of course, comes extreme responsibility: patients and staff... all of them.
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I moved to another state and hospital as a supervisor and figured it would be a rough transition, but it wasn't. Hospitals of the same size have basically the same types of rooms and needs. I was comfortable after one shift.

I love walking quiet hospital hallways at night. You hear breathing, machinery, nurses' subdued conversation and gentle phone rings. That all changes in an emergency...

Then we have cacophony: alarms, loud, adrenalin filled voices, running feet and orders barked by sleepy doctors. Then it is quiet again and you have to bleed off your own adrenalin and get back into the normal flow of the building.

The most fun place in a hospital is the dietary department. You have keys to it in case there are late admissions, a doctor needs to eat something other than chips or sodas (I used it for my nurses as well) or you want to eat. There were always meals left, fully prepared, that you would heat in the microwave and take to patients or the others. It was a perc, for sure.

Hospitals are such alive buildings! They take in patients, they process them, we move inside them, they put forth patients and the cycle repeats. I have never been in a more interesting building than a hospital, many hospitals, and may not ever be in one, well maybe La Louvre is an exception.