On “Normal,” “Johnnies,” and “Facecloths”

I have been in Massachusetts for two months now! In that amount of time, I already feel like I’m settling into a pleasant routine. It’s amazing how something so new can quickly fade into feeling normal. But don’t be fooled! With fresh eyes in a new place, there is a lot to see.

On how to get places:

Transportation in Boston is different than anywhere I have ever lived. I used to drive and park to get places. Oh, how things have changed. For starters, parking is an issue. To bring it home (pun intended), I pay an extra $8/day to park my car AT MY APARTMENT which is technically in a suburb. In the city of Pittsburgh, I was paying $20/year. I have really enjoyed the mile walk to work, but if I wanted to park at work during a weekday shift? That would be $38/day.

I don’t drive a lot because parking is difficult in the city. Relying on public transportation is very new to me. Mostly I walk, I take the bus or the subway, or I Lyft or Uber. As a rule, if it takes 30 minutes or less to walk somewhere, I walk. If I require a bus or subway, chances are my travels times are at least 45 minutes one way. For example, on Mondays, I’ve been riding the bus to get to futsal games in Cambridge, MA. The building is 3.5 miles from my apartment, but from door to door, the travel time is about an hour each way. Well worth it, by the way.

I remember complaining to my roommate Erin that it feels like I’m walking SO MUCH because it is already half a mile to walk to the bus stop or metro station. She laughed and said that you get used to it. She’s right. Slowly I’m figuring out when to drive/walk/bus/metro/lyft/uber and the half mile to the bus/metro doesn’t feel as long as it used to.

TLDR: If you have any podcasts to recommend as I figure out my way around, please let me know!

On nursing in a new city:

My current placement is on a heart failure/ cardiology unit. I had three days of orientation which was doable, but difficult in some legitimate and comical ways.

The charting system, how I get and give nurse handoff, where I gather my patient’s medications, how I communicate with doctors, how codes are called, how codes operate, how the cardiac monitoring system works, the IV pumps, how patients are admitted and discharged, codes to the breakroom/ supply room/ med room: all different. How did I learn all of that in three days? Well, I didn’t. I learned everything I could in three days, and thereafter have continued to ask questions incessantly.

Other differences are more minor, like what things are called. I came to Boston with a nursing vocabulary from Pittsburgh. What I call monitor, they call tele; what I call charge nurse, they call resource nurse; what I call patient gown, they call “johnny” (?? also why??); and what I call washcloth, they call facecloth. All the subtle terminology switches can create some confusion. I wish you could have seen me running around on day 4 desperately trying to find someone a “facecloth” to have a non-native English speaker hand me a washcloth.

Another dynamic to get used to is that many of the rooms on my floor have two patients in them at a time. This dynamic can create some strange scenarios. Confused patients, manic patients, friendly patients, talkative patients, reclusive patients, patients who speak Russian/Spanish/Polish/ect., patients on bowel prep…, they all get to share their space with a stranger with just a curtain in between. For all the drawbacks, it’s almost poetic.

TLDR: I really like my assignment.

I’ll be visiting Pittsburgh in April for about a week and then coming back to Boston for my next assignment on a cardiac surgery floor. If anyone wants to visit, let me know! As promised, some pictures of my life.

This collage features me being a tourist downtown, Boston Commons in February colors, a cannoli, a lobster roll, and my reaction to HOW AMAZING lobster rolls are.

This collage features Jamacia Pond, one of my favorite spots, which is just a walk from my apartment. I’m training for a half marathon, so I run around this pond a lot and snap pictures whenever it strikes me.