Dr. Vickie Morris grabbed her purse and work bag as she exited her car in the doctors parking area of Cook County Hospital in Chicago, Illinois and headed towards one of the employees only entrances into the hospital to start her 12 hour night shift. Life at the hospital was anything but boring, yet it was exactly this fast-paced, hectic and unpredictable environment that her personality was best suited for. As she walked towards the room at the end of the hall that was designated for the residents, she saw a male nurse eyeing her and she pretended to not see. She knew that some of the hospital staff had suspicions over her sexual orientation, but no one had ever been bold enough to ask, at least not outright. Used to getting attention from both sexes, Vickie knew how to easily brush off unwanted interest and advances. Standing at six feet tall, she was a strikingly beautiful mulatto woman with short, curly hair. She often heard that men were intimidated by taller women, but never in her thirty-four years had she ever felt that that had been the case for her. Men seemed to flock to her like moths to a flame, and the only thing about her that she thought intimidated men was her intelligence. It had nothing to do with her height. Well, then there was the fact that she preferred the fairer sex, but she was highly guarded as to whom she let that artifact be known.

 

Ready to get to work, Vickie exited the resident's room and headed towards the main nursing station in the emergency room. Walking towards her, she spotted the sexy nursing student that she had been secretly lusting after for the past couple of weeks, whose name was Blanca. As they walked past one another, she opened the door and nodded. Blanca was a refreshing addition to the hospital staff. She had a very pleasant personality and was obviously very eager to learn about patient care, although truth-be-told, Vickie wasn't so sure the E.R. would be the best location choice for Blanca once she received her nursing license. While Blanca proved to be more than capable with many of the emergency room patients, in the more traumatic cases of gunshot and stabbing victims, industrial accidents and extreme domestic abuse, Blanca's reactions outwardly told of her ability to handle the more extreme trauma cases that often come through a level 1 emergency room. Nonetheless, Vickie thought Blanca was professionally capable as well as sexy as hell and desirable. However, Vickie has always been nothing but professional and has never thought of any of her fellow staff members in a sexual manner, that is, until Blanca. Though she was very much attracted to Blanca's long, black hair, dark brown eyes and signature Mexican figure, she knew that she had to keep things professional. Crossing that line could mean risking both of their professional careers.

 

She was doing her residency in emergency medicine, under the guidance of the chief trauma surgeon at the hospital. Vickie was updated on the evening's happenings and was preparing when the next trauma case came in. She hadn't been sitting down for three minutes when she heard the call for the trauma team and they all sprung into action. The paramedics that brought in the bloodied patient were shouting out what details they knew including the fact that the victim had multiple gunshot wounds and a team comprised of Vickie, some other residents, nurses and the chief trauma surgeon worked feverishly to assess and stabilize the young man. Vickie realized that Blanca was part of the responding team, and because Blanca was a nursing student, she had to work by the instructions of the charge nurse and her main job was to primarily observe, stay out of the way, and to only do what she was told by her. Vickie just gave her a passing glance, as she had to focus because of the urgency of the situation.

 

The life threatening situations in the emergency room meant that they all had to be keen alert, and move very fast and accurately without deviation. All trauma cases were handled by a trauma team, and every player performed their particular duties with precious precision. Like a fine-tuned orchestra, they each had a role to play that contributed to the overall outcome, and just like a conductor, the lead trauma surgeon directed and instructed everyone accordingly, ensuring the expediency of which medical care was doled out to the victim. Everyone stood in their usual places around the patient, and having worked together for a while, they were able to move swiftly around each other with a fluidity that was typically incomprehensible to most, yet most appreciated by patients as well as their anxious loved ones.

 

The E.R. was a drastically different experience from the other clinical rotations Blanca had to do for her required nursing credits, and light years away from her exposure at her previous job. She had been working as a Certified Nursing Assistant (CNA) in a nursing home for six years, and although she enjoyed her job, she needed a change. She wanted to expand her education and career options, and since she really enjoyed the aspects of healthcare and helping people, she enrolled in nursing school. Currently in her final block of schooling, Blanca could now see herself approaching the coveted finish line. All of her class blocks exposed her to a well-rounded array of health specialties and the ability to hone her craft within each niche, but never before had she been exposed to so much, in such short time, as she had now during her final clinical rotation in the E.R.. The only thing that was bothersome to her was the gruesome cases they saw come in, and on such a regular basis. There were gunshot victims, stabbing victims, drug overdoses and domestic violence cases. These types of violent, trauma cases often left Blanca feeling shell shocked by the end of her shift. She was both surprised and saddened at the level of neglect, indifference and violence that humans were capable of inflicting onto one another. The fact that little thought, if any, was given as to the consequences another person would suffer as a result of the persons inflicting the pain onto another was hard for her to come to terms with. Her experience in the emergency room didn't change her mind from completing nursing school. She certainly didn't plan to give up after investing so much time and effort into a field she genuinely enjoyed. However, working in the E.R. only made her positive that that was not the area in which she ultimately wanted to work, and Blanca had nothing but the utmost respect for all the medical personnel that worked constantly under those circumstances. The physical and emotional part of the job was very demanding and one had to be strong on both accounts to be able to do it.