Gynae nightmares

"Stop pissing around and start unloading the fucking breakfast trolley" bellowed Bettie. Bettie was my first charge nurse and I was just new graduate. "Is this normal?" I whispered to Shelly, my preceptor. Shelly's face wore a frown as she motioned for me to begin unloading the trolley. "They're not all like Bettie. She's a bad charge nurse. Don't trust her and cover your butt" explained Shelly.

I'd only been on the job one week and I hated my boss, hated all but a handful of the staff, and hated nursing. What the fuck was I, a male, doing in a gynaecology ward? I had the worst possible start to a nursing career that anyone could ask for. The patients regularly refused to have me as their nurse and the feeling was mutual.

What did management expect? I never had an interview, the hospital took the top dozen graduated from the nursing school and placed them in wards. It didn't help that my name had been mistaken for a women's name.

And now my preceptor was insisting I do everything a female nurse did. "I want you to catheterize Mrs Jones" said Shelly. I nearly walked out then and there.