On-the-Job Training

"Study to be a nurse online" -
my spam folder promises a career! 
Success! But
some things can't be learned by reading
screen or book.
Driving a car. Becoming a chef.
Applying make-up. Making love.
You can read a dozen marriage books
before the wedding, but nothing
prepares you for
the day after or every day after that
but OJT. No manual can explain
a man's meanimg when he says that
or why her silence is a reflection
of sadness no one shares.
How-to brochures with
tons of tidy parenting tips,
techniques for the terrible twos,
the terrible-er teens,
but I defy any parent to breeze
through without a lot of blood,
sweat, and tears. Or other bands.
Play the music loud enough and
kids amuse themselves
until you figure out your next move.
Grief cannot be learned by study,
nor love. 
"Study to be a nurse" if
you wish; it isn't how you'll learn.
Even learning is not living it out,
every day, when patients reek
of disease and you fight to keep
from showing it on your face.
Or someone's child lies dying
and you can't stop it
from happening.


(c)Ellen Gillette, 2012

My mother went to nursing school back when only single women were nurses. She quit, thinking she'd be getting married soon and always regretted it. I have friends who are nurses and a daughter about to begin nursing school. Like teachers, they are overworked and underpaid, but what a ministry. The idea that an online course could even come close to training nurses struck me as absurd.