I need a bit of input from nursing students or those who know can lend me a nursing student’s perspective. I’m writing a murder mystery – just a short story, probably, and unlikely ever to be published – but I’m a perfectionist and would rather avoid some of the bigger pitfalls made by writers who know little about the field into which they are dipping their metaphoric toes.
The story involves a murder that takes place on a university campus. The victim (Paige) is found by her roommate (Angelika), who quickly seeks the assistance of a nursing student (Leticia). What I’d like to get a handle on is how Leticia is going to react to the situation.
First a little background on the character. Leticia grew up in a barrio, and witnessed a lot of gang violence. She realized at an early age that education would be her way out of poverty, and applied herself to her studies with an iron will. While not a prodigy, she worked her way up to the top of her class in school, winning several scholarships. Acting on the helplessness she felt as a child when her brother had been carried home from a gang fight with a fractured skull, she chose nursing as her field. It’s not the greatest fit because she isn’t much of a people person on the outside. Leticia is brusque, a bit gruff, and has no tolerance for whining or petty disagreements – of course this is due to the hardened shell she welded about herself to shut out the pain and ugliness of her childhood. Although standing only 5’1", Leticia has a commanding presence and has a unique talent for silencing a noisy room just by entering it and casting an icy stare about (I knew a nun in high school who had this quality). Once you get past the exterior, though, she’s a kind and caring person, though she has difficulty expressing it.
The setting is a private Catholic university. It’s similar to the one I attended (because that’s what I know of college life) except that the fictional school has a college of nursing, which my school did not. To be quite candid, I know little to nothing about how a nursing college is set up, what the curriculum is like, how early students begin spending time in an actual hospital setting with real patients, etc. This complete ignorance is why I’m putting forth this discussion.
Here is the gist of what I want to know:
A. Supposing that Leticia is a fourth year nursing student, what would her schedule be like? Would she be spending the majority of her time in lectures, studying, or working shifts in a hospital? Is it feasible that a student in her field would also have a job as a “dorm mother?”
B. How much exposure will a fourth year nursing student have had to death? Would her studies at this stage have included working with cadavers? If so, in what capacity – performing actual dissections or just observing? Would she have spent time in an ER in any capacity?
C. The situation: Leticia has been summoned for help by Angelika, who is in such a state that she can only pass on the information that “something has happened to Paige.” She follows Angelika back to their dorm room. Paige is indeed dead, and has been for over thirty minutes. She is lying in a fetal position on her bed, facing towards the wall, wearing only a silk scarf knotted around her neck. The scarf, in combination with a short but stout dowel rod, has been used as a garrote, but the fact that the scarf remains around her neck means that the wounds of strangulation, and therefore the cause of death, are not immediately visible. As a fourth year nursing student, what should be Leticia’s automatic, instinctive reaction? Would she be more likely to recognize this as a case beyond medical assistance (thus preserving the crime scene), or throw herself into attempts to resuscitate the body?
Any insight into these areas would be greatly appreciated. Leticia doesn’t play a huge role in the my story, but I want her reaction to be authentic, as it sets the scene for much of what follows.