By: Jarad Sassone-McHugh –
Ochre Court was a place of health and well being on Tuesday, September 27. Three women, who’s combined experience in nursing add up to half a century, sat in Ochre Court. They patiently awaited anyone who felt the need to escape disease with the help of one simple shot (and for whoever is deathly afraid of needles, an even simpler nasal spray works just as well).
The room was empty and barren of students and the only energy in the air seemed to be the quiet musings of the three retired women. When asked about their abundant careers, they let their minds wistfully leap into memories of seemingly endless shifts in hospitals and in factories – too dangerous for a worker to labor without the comfort of knowing a professional nurse was near by. Now retired and still hungry for action, they sat in Ochre Court ready to help both students and locals.
When asked where all the action had been, one nurse stared with a contented look in her eyes and answered, “There has already been 109 people here. It was real [sic] crowded earlier. [They were] mostly nursing students – it’s a requirement for them.” That was at one o’ clock and the clinic would be going on for another two hours.
It is not yet flu season, but the vaccine does not kick in until after two weeks. Anybody who was to get the shot or nasal spray would bulk up their immune system just in time for the internal war that comes with flu season. One nurse, eager to dispel a discrepancy that might keep some from coming stated, “Some people think the shot makes them sick, but that’s not true at all. Since it takes two weeks to really work, it’s possible for someone to get the flu within those two weeks.”
The flu season is soon to come upon us and if you missed this flu clinic, there is no need to fret or anxiously sit by your mailbox awaiting your mom’s shipment of Flintstone’s vitamin C gummies. There will be another flu clinic in Ochre Court on Wednesday, October 5th from 11am to 3pm.
