Chapter 40 First Day at Work
Du Ruoxia pushed the bike for a while and then started riding it.
Although the county hospital is a county-level hospital, if judged by the scale of hospitals in later generations, Yuyang County Hospital can only be considered a county hospital.
The only distinction in the entire hospital is between traditional Chinese medicine and Western medicine; there are no further subdivisions of departments.
Du Ruoxia pushed open the door and entered, where a nurse at the information desk greeted her.
"Hello, the doctor hasn't started work yet, so you'll have to wait a little while to see a doctor."
The person smiled, revealing two small tiger teeth, and looked quite young.
"Hello, I'm the new doctor, my name is Du Ruoxia."
Jiang Xiaoli's eyes widened, and she looked her up and down twice before she came to her senses. "You're a new doctor? I didn't expect you to be so young! Are you an adult?"
"You've turned eighteen."
“I’m older than you! Oh, by the way, Dean Hu already said that a new doctor will be coming. The room is all ready. Come with me.”
Du Ruoxia followed her and listened to her introduction, "Including you, there are only fourteen people in our hospital. Sister Jin Youxian is the accountant, in charge of registration and money collection. Xiao Aying, Wei Lingling, Xu Aihua, Wu Min, and I are the six nurses."
Dean Hu is the president of our hospital and also the director of surgery. Two months ago, a doctor named Gao Yuyang came from Beijing. He can do both traditional Chinese medicine and Western medicine. The deputy director is Dr. Jiang Xinmin. There are also two Western medicine doctors, Wang Hu and Liu Bolin, and three traditional Chinese medicine doctors, Qin Yonghuai, Li Shian and Wu Weimin.
We were originally going to prepare a second consultation room for you, but Deputy Director Jiang said it's too cold in winter, and to save coal we can just stay in one room. What do you think?
The county hospital faces south and is backed by Jinjiao Mountain. The room next to the large iron gate is used as a cashier's office, the west wing is used as a warehouse, and the two rooms on the east side are planned to be used as hospital beds, but they are not yet ready. Of the three single-story buildings facing the gate, the westernmost one has a sign for the nurses' room, the eastern one is locked, and only the middle one has a felt curtain hanging on it, with condensation on the glass.
“We usually work in this room. This room has two doors. Deputy Director Jiang’s idea is to have the Traditional Chinese Medicine department on the east door and the Western Medicine department on the west door, so it looks more professional,” Jiang Xiaoli said, then couldn’t help but laugh. She lifted the blanket and went in through the east door, pointing to a large wooden table and saying, “Dr. Du, this is your seat.”
Du Ruoxia nodded her thanks and began to look around. The large room had two large windows facing the mountains. She and Deputy Director Jiang each had a wooden table on one of them, and behind each table against the wall were metal cabinets. Between the two tables was a bed, facing the coal stove against the south wall. Next to the coal stove were two small tables, and judging from the items on them, they should have been used by Jiang Xiaoli and the others.
Seeing that she was staring at the bed in the middle, Jiang Xiaoli walked over and pulled up the white curtain on the wall, pulling it forcefully to the center. "Deputy Director Jiang said that pulling the curtain up like this will separate the two sides, and the patient won't get cold when taking off their clothes for examination."
"Deputy Director Jiang made such a good arrangement," Du Ruoxia said, looking up at the curtains on both sides of the bed. She then noticed that they were made of old white sheets pieced together, but the stitches were so dense and neat that they were not easily noticeable. "The craftsmanship is really good."
Jiang Xiaoli was a little embarrassed. She chuckled and slapped her forehead. She ran to the small table and grabbed a bunch of keys. "Dr. Du, these are the keys to the main house, the warehouse, and the front door. Take good care of them. We have a limited number of keys, so please don't lose them."
Du Ruoxia nodded, put the key in her pocket, then took it out again and put it in the inner pocket of her cotton-padded jacket.
"Dr. Du, you can tie it to your waistband like I did," Jiang Xiaoli showed her by turning up her cotton-padded coat, but unexpectedly someone lifted the felt curtain of another door. She immediately blushed, straightened her clothes, lowered her head, and ran out, "I, I'll go sweep the floor!"
Du Ruoxia met Jiang Xinmin's somewhat puzzled expression and couldn't help but smile slightly. "Hello, Director Jiang, my name is Du Ruoxia."
"Hello." Jiang Xinmin looked her up and down, then took off his coat and put on a white lab coat.
Du Ruoxia originally thought Jiang Xinmin was a stubborn middle-aged doctor, but she didn't expect him to look less than thirty years old. He had dark skin and a tall, upright figure, and looked more like a soldier than a doctor.
His eyebrows were thick, and when he wore a white coat, he exuded an air of quiet arrogance, which explains why outsiders subconsciously thought he had a bad temper.
"Dr. Du, there's something I forgot to tell you." Jiang Xiaoli picked up a rag and started talking to her about the county hospital's cleaning duties.
"Everyone is responsible for cleaning the house. We will take turns cleaning the floor of the main house. For the outside, Sister Jin will do it for one day each. We have electricity but no water here, so we have to fetch water from the mountainside. Director Jiang will do more work, and whoever is free can fill in the gaps."
Du Ruoxia nodded, confirming that she was cleaning the yard on Friday when she saw someone rushing into the yard on a bicycle, heading straight for the big tree, almost hitting her bicycle.
"Who is it that parks their bicycle like that, as if they're afraid I won't bump into them?" she muttered, pulling off her woolen hat to reveal a head of messy curls. Turning her head, she saw Jiang Xiaoli running over with a broom, skipping and hopping. "Hey Xiaoli, you're sweeping for me again! I'll treat you to candy!"
"Who are you?" She was taken aback when she saw Du Ruoxia holding a rag, then turned to ask Jiang Xiaoli, "Has the county hospital reassigned staff again?"
Jiang Xiaoli tugged at her hem, "Xu Aihua, you're on leave and don't know, this is the new Dr. Du."
"Dr. Du?" Xu Aihua looked her over in surprise. "She looks younger than me. Did you graduate from medical school or something? How did you end up here? It's really..."
Before she could finish speaking, Jiang Xiaoli pulled her back again, and the latter quickly added, "She's amazing. She successfully performed surgery on two seriously injured people before she even had her license."
Xu Aihua's eyes were filled with disdain. "I'm afraid the rumors are too exaggerated. Our health center doesn't have that many patients who come to see Western doctors. Everyone comes to see traditional Chinese medicine doctors."
In this era, people generally prefer to see traditional Chinese medicine doctors, especially in rural areas. They are quite resistant to Western medicine surgery, and some more conservative people even resist physical examinations and are unwilling to take off their clothes.
Xu Aihua's name is not well-known, but she is much more fashionable than Jiang Xiaoli. She has permed her hair, rides a bicycle, and is wearing a new cotton-padded jacket. Her family must be well-off. I don't know how she was assigned to a remote mountain village.
As for her attitude towards her, Du Ruoxia chose to ignore it and turned to go to the warehouse.
Xu Aihua rolled her eyes behind her back and said to Jiang Xiaoli in an annoyed tone, "How can she be like this? My grandfather died from surgery. I don't believe in Western medicine!"
"You, you just can't control your mouth," Jiang Xiaoli pinched Xu Aihua's cheek. "This is work!"
Although Du Ruoxia had already walked away, she could still hear their conversation clearly. She had seen many people like Xu Aihua. Instead of wasting time trying to persuade them, she should focus on improving her medical skills and let the facts speak for themselves. Just like Jiang Xiaoli said, this was work, not a debate.
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