My horrific clinic life as a student nurse

I sat down at the table and looked to see what was placed there.

A bowl of rice, miso soup, and natto. And one more thing….a bottle of umeboshi.

The other senpais were already eating and one of them told me not to touch the bottle of umeboshi because it belonged to the head nurse.

I the asked her if I could have another bowl of rice, but she said, ”No, you can’t. Because we are eating whatever is left from thepatients’ breakfast.”

“What?” I thought.

We have 6 people here and this is it?

Even though the amount of food was so little, it took more time for me to eat it than any of the other nurses. But I didn’t think it was more than 10 minutes.

“Are you going to sit there all day long!?!” the kitchen witch yelled at me.

I said sorry and stood up immediately.

Senpai-1 told me to come with her to gather up the patients’ trays to wash.

She said, ”I will take the rooms on the right side of the hall so you take the left side, OK?”

She also told me to collect them within 15 minutes.

I knocked on the first door and looked inside.

An old man was the patient of the room and he was still eating.

I decided to skip that room and tried to go to the next door, but Senpai-1 saw me without the tray so she told me to get it no matter what.

I timidly went back into the room and asked the old man if it was OK for me to take the tray with whatever was left on it.

The old man became very grumpy and said, ”Can’t you see I’m still eating?”

I said, ”Yes, I can, but I have to collect the tray so that we can wash them.”

The old man said, ”I’m still EATING!”

I said,”Yes, but…”

“You guys always make me eat in a hurry. Are you going to let me eat breakfast or not?”

I thought he was totally right and that he had every right to eat at his own pace. But when I thought about the consequences and the unjust punishment I would receive, I felt I had to ask him again.

“Would you terribly mind possibly hurrying up a little bit and finish eating?”

He threw his chopsticks on the tray loudly and then threw his words towards me.

“I lost my appetite! Go ahead and put the tray away and get outta here!”

I apologized to him, took the tray and left the room quickly. But I couldn’t understand why I had to say sorry so many times. I felt that I was in a no-win situation.

Gathering the dishes was now over. It was hard enough for me to do that job, but a harder job was waiting for me.

Senpai-1 was already washing the dishes, and placing them in very, very hot water to sanitize them.

She used her bare hands and told me to try it. I didn’t think I could do it, but again I really had no choice so I tried it.

“Ouch! Hot!” I screamed.

Senpai-1 taught me to use another bowl to let the other bowl float on the hot water so that I wouldn’t have to soak my hand in the hot water.

But the dishes themselves were really hot and it was impossible to grab them.

Senpai-1 said, ”You’ll get used to it. Well, you have to get used to it anyway. All right?”

I already wanted to pack up everything and go home from the very first morning of the very first day of my work life.

To be continued…