Illustration: NGUYEN MINH
squeak... squeak... squeak...
The cleaning supplies cart seemed to press even tighter against the tiled floor of the long, winding corridor.
The creaking sound of that specialized vehicle echoed against the smooth white tiled floor, creating an even more evocative soundscape as rows of rooms were swept past by angelic figures in white, moving as fast as a gust of wind.
Ms. Kieu urged Tuyen, "Hurry up a little more, Tuyen, the VIP room still needs cleaning, and then we have to go down to the gray hallway to finish the job."
Tuyen was clumsy with the mop because she had only been an apprentice for two days and couldn't possibly be as skilled as the other women.
Ms. Kieu's voice continued in my ear, "Remember, for a two-bed room, you need two clean loads and one scented load. For a four-bed room, three clean loads and two scented loads. For a six-bed room, four clean loads and three scented loads. As for the VIP room, I'll take care of that. You're new to the job, the boss won't let you clean it."
Tuyen softly said "yes" and wiped away the drops of sweat trickling down her eyes with her sleeve. The salty taste of her sweat today was different from usual, and it seemed to sting a little too? No, it must be because she'd been handling those rags and her hands were covered in bleach.
The job of a nursing assistant is just sweeping the floor with a mop like you're cleaning a house. But you start cleaning rooms from 6 a.m. until 11:45 a.m., and you don't get a break until you're done. You rest at lunchtime, then at 1:15 p.m. you continue cleaning room after room until 4:30 p.m. You get four days off with full pay a week, double pay for night shifts, and triple pay for holidays and Tet (Lunar New Year). After four Sundays off, your bank account is overflowing with money for meals, fish, meat, and treats for your family and children.
*
- Hey Tuyen, Huong, slow down, relax a little, so that each stroke of the cable becomes soft and continuous like this, like this...
- Bang!
- Trunk.
- Hey, you can't drop the mop like that! The noise will disturb the customers. Remember, this is a service hospital, everything has to be neat and professional. Customer satisfaction is our salary. If you two make that much noise, and the customers complain on the system, our whole team will lose points in the performance evaluation! And losing points means losing salary and bonuses, understand?
Tuyen and Huong had to keep their arms relaxed, rotating their wrists continuously while their hands held the mop firmly. This movement caused their right hands to go numb, and their left thumbs and index fingers seemed to have blood pooling in one spot.
Ms. Kieu's voice remained steady:
- Okay, wiping three tiles back and forth is too difficult, I'm just learning, let's just wipe two. Start from the edge of the wall on the left, place the mop there, then push the mop to the right, then rotate the mop so that the pad creates continuous horizontal S-shaped lines without any gaps... That way the floor will be clean.
The two trainee nurses could only watch in admiration. Ms. Kieu's voice remained even:
- Furthermore, during the cleaning process, if there is any debris on the floor such as medicine wrappers, toothpicks, hair, cotton swabs, scraps of paper, etc., you must keep the debris inside the cleaning bag, holding it steady towards your feet, and then gradually pull it towards the door. Only then should you release the debris from the bag and scoop it into the bin...
*
Today, Tuyen was assigned by her boss to accompany Ms. Van. Ms. Van is the same person who yesterday "gave them a piece of trash" for Tuyen and Huong to practice on.
- Ding dong... Please proceed to counter number 3, number 0349.
- Ding dong... Please proceed to counter number 6, number 0634.
- Ding dong...
Despite the deafening clanging of the multi-specialty clinic and the frantic calls of patients' relatives, the orderlies only needed to know their job: their cleaning carts, fully stocked with disinfectants, air fresheners, cleaning cloths, toilet brushes, floor mops, etc., creaked and groaned as they trudged through the long, dark rows of wards.
While attaching the load to the mop, Ms. Vân took out two phones and put them in the specialized vehicle's storage compartment, telling Tuyền:
- It's terrible! My son is in 8th grade, and he's more interested in playing games than studying. I have to take his phone away from home while I'm at work so he doesn't skip school and play games! If I can't reach him, my husband has to rush home at lunchtime to see if he's eaten or slept properly!
- Oh, your husband works here too? Why didn't you ask the baby's older siblings to look after her? Why did you have to come all the way here?
- There's only one child, where would he get siblings from?
- Yes... do you and your wife have a child?
- Yeah, I got married at 38, he was 40, so we only had one child. Being an old father with a young child, I thought it would be easy, but it turned out to be incredibly tough!
- On the contrary, I have two children, one in first grade and the other in fifth grade, but I've been estranged from my husband for three years now!
- Huh, why? She's so young, why did they break up?
- He was tempted by an easy job with a high salary, so he left and we haven't heard from him for years. We gave birth to him, so we'll raise him ourselves!
- Yeah, well, try your best. The work isn't strenuous, you don't have to endure the sun or rain, just a lot of traveling, but the salary and bonuses for Tet are pretty good!
- Yes, I'm glad to hear that. Where do we begin?
- From the Diamond Room. See? The room with the door wide open, right next to the nursing staff's room. The client (referred to as a client here, not a patient) just checked out. Watch what I do and follow suit! Be careful and thorough, it's a VIP room that costs two million dong a day, so even the bed frame has to be spotless! Now, take off your old gloves and put on new ones! If the camera sees you not changing your gloves before entering the Diamond Room, the boss will fine you!
And then came the 60-minute Diamond Room Cleaning process, which broadened Tuyen's horizons compared to six years of working as a part-time housekeeper in the most luxurious villas.
Tuyen's hand repeatedly rubbed the bedside table because she noticed a sticky chewing gum residue. It must have been some grandchild or relative who came to visit and playfully dragged a long trail of gum along the table!
But the game proved difficult for the nurse because the cabinet was made of matte plastic, and the candy stuck to it wasn't as easy to handle as with a glossy plastic cabinet.
Cleaning the cabinet took about 10 minutes. Then there was the dining table, the TV stand, and I had to flip the mattress over. Since the mattress was folded in half, I had to wipe the top part first, then fold it up and wipe the bottom part.
But remember to wipe down the bed slats too! Each and every plastic bed slat must be wiped thoroughly with a cloth (different from the one you use to wipe the bedside table)! Wipe until the plastic feels squeaky smooth to the touch – only then is it done properly.
A key characteristic of the Diamond Room is that after a thorough cleaning, the smell of bleach mixed with fabric softener must be presentable. And the refrigerator door – you have to use the power plug to wedge a small gap in the door to allow the disinfectant smell to dissipate. If you wipe it clean and then slam it shut, and a guest opens it and is met with a strong, pungent disinfectant smell, who would want that?
Oh... it's just cleaning a 20 square meter room along with the wardrobe and the bed, and Tuyen has been studying for two days now and still hasn't finished.
- "It's better to let go of everything and start over... it's better... to let go of everything and owe nothing to each other..."
Vân's phone rang with a ridiculously funny sound. The person on the other end asked her to hurry home to help her husband search for their eighth-grade son because he hadn't gone to school or come home today. Both sides of the family, nearby, had already searched but still couldn't find him.
Ms. Vân only managed to exclaim, "Oh my God... I'm going home right away..." then hurriedly told Tuyền, "You still have rooms 302 and 304, go ahead and take care of those too. They're not Diamond rooms, so it'll be easy. I have to go home to find my 'little devil' at home. If someone lured him away and he disappeared, I'll die of embarrassment..."
Ms. Vân, dressed in a light blue shirt, hurried towards the elevator. Tuyền grabbed her water bottle, stretched her spine a few times, and bent over a few times to relieve the stiffness in her neck. It was a very unusual sight that would make a child ask: "Mom, why is she holding a water bottle while exercising?"
Yes, you have to trick the camera into thinking I'm drinking water, not taking a break to exercise during work hours. Because the regulations only allow three water breaks and restroom breaks during office hours, each lasting no more than 5 minutes, and phone calls are only permitted when there's an incoming call. They don't allow people to exercise because they're too sore or just quickly make a call home "for family matters," okay?
12:10 PM.
Clutter... clutter... the nurses' cart trundles along the corridors to its "storage" area. There, before their lunch break, the nurses must refill bottles of floor cleaner, toilet cleaner, door cleaner, headboard cleaner, and other cleaning solutions—bottles only those in the profession can identify. While they're at it, they wash the cleaning cloths used all morning and hang them up to dry for use in the afternoon. Then they take the used cleaning cloths downstairs to the laundry room to put them in the washing machine.
The nurses' morning shift ends at 12:30 PM. They will have an hour for lunch and rest before starting their afternoon shift.
Squeak... squeak...
The rattling sounds of cleaning solutions, dozens of cleaning cloths, scrubbing brushes, and rinse water seemed to make the wheels grip the tiled floor even tighter.
According to Nhandan.vn
Source: https://baoangiang.com.vn/tieng-xe-cut-kit-a491295.html
