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Location: Canada

Member Since: June 23, 2017

JoChalupiak

Haikus Of A Nursing Student on June 25, 2017

Hospitals are cesspools of human suffering. When you pass through the emergency room doors, a magical transformation happens. The individual you are, or perhaps, the individual you love, is replaced by a patient. That is, a slab of diseased pork on a stainless-steel table, wrapped in a toothpaste coloured nightgown. Full disclosure: I hate hospitals and disease and doctors… the more revolting aspects of the medical institution. Perhaps I even hate having a body myself. So vulnerable, and sticky, you know? For me, the value of this little book is its capacity to deepen, and in some ways, challenge this interpretation of medical spaces. After reading it, I still think hospitals are cesspools of human suffering. They promise miseries for the sick, for the healthy peering in at the sick, and--here’s where my appreciation has expanded a little-- for the nurses who must keep up the charade that whatever happens there isn’t so extraordinary, after all. In a twisted kind of way, I’m glad that medical professionals have the feelings these haikus express. (Beautifully, by the way). In an equally twisted way, I’m relieved that I don’t have to have to suffer these feelings. Some people have to work in hospitals, I guess. Glad it’s not me.