Charlotte talks about her first patient

Interviewer: Do you remember your first day on the floor as a student nurse?

Charlotte, Class of 1969: [Laughs.] Oh yes. It was quite a buildup. We were to interview a real live patient. And I don’t know who was more scared, the patient or us. [Laughs.] But they didn’t bite and neither did we. I interviewed a, a woman who was recovering from surgery and she was about ready to go home. So… I remember she had braids very much like my grandmother used to, and I used to braid Gram’s hair. I think that’s how I started to feel more comfortable. You know we had to say who we were and what we were there for. And sort of like “I’m a student nurse. I’m supposed to talk to you and” phew. You know, both sides stared at each other and somehow I got talking about her braids and that helped me relax and so she told me a bit about herself. Because we were supposed to find out a lot about these patients, and at that point I just wasn’t ready to snoop into her life. [Clears throat.] I didn’t realize that this is part of your clinical training, that you’re not snooping, you’re asking pertinent questions. Well she was ready to go home, what, what would I need to know, except she was awfully glad to get out of there.