Life in a burn unit
No. I'm not a squeamish person. There's a smell, a lot of people think it's kind of revolting. And the patients' skin was very black and very red, black because silver nitrate, which is used to prevent infection, turns everything black. But none of that upset me. I was fascinated from the beginning, right from when I first went into the OR.
Buy Speaking of the OR, you write that it's kept very hot and wet to keep the burn patients' temperature normal and their tissues from drying out. What's it like to work in there, capped and gowned?
It must be really hard. The temperature and humidity are both kept in the high 90s. The surgeons drink a lot of water. I was very amused to see what they're chugging is bottles of sterile water, the water they use to flush wounds. And a nurse comes around with a plastic bag filled with ice and lays it on the neck of everybody in turn. They also take breaks, although there's always somebody in authority there. It's especially hard for the anesthesiologist. He can't walk around like the surgeons can--he's stuck in his spot behind the patient. So he takes a lot of breaks, leaves his resident in charge.
Two of the burn unit nurses you highlight are men--is the proportion of male to female nurses more tilted toward males in this unit?
It's true across burn units. Apparently the burn and emergency medicine services have a higher proportion of male nurses. It's a little bit testosterone driven, and also, with burns, there's a lot of physical work. You do a lot of lifting of inert bodies. And I have to admit, those two guys were so interesting. Everything out of their mouths was amazing.
Have you ever been burned?
Funny you should ask. Never, until three weeks ago, when I burned myself badly--not hospital badly, but pretty bad. It was eye-opening, realizing how stupid I was. I was making my morning coffee. I put hot milk in my espresso. The phone rang, and by the time I came back, the coffee had cooled off. So I put the coffee in the microwave, but I set it for 3 minutes rather than 1 minute because I wasn't paying attention. When I took it out, it just exploded, it was superheated. It was a second-degree burn. It hurt like hell. Did I seek medical attention? No. Why? I think because I was embarrassed. That was so stupid. I should have called 911 and let the EMT say, lady, how did you do that? The moral is not to make your coffee before you've had your coffee.
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