Ana's Hospital Mystery
Reveals a World of Healthcare Careers

. . . The third reason she liked to go to the hospital was the variety of sounds. These weren’t like sounds she heard at home, or at school, or at the shopping center. Often there was a pleasant, clear voice over-head announcing the need for a certain doctor to help someone in a specific area of the hospital: “Dr. Weiss to the Newborn Nursery,” or “Dr. Lister to the Operating Room.” . . . Under all these voices were the sounds of people coming and going, of the hospital workers from the Environmental Services Department pushing their carts which were loaded with cleaning equipment, and the whoosh of the elevator doors opening and closing . . . Some of the visitors were even speaking other languages, which made her wish that she could too . . . 

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 . . . The fourth thing she liked about going to the hospital was its busy-ness . . .  It was open twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week, and there were always lots of people working, from before the sun was up when dew covered the grass, during lunch when buses chugged back and forth along the city streets, and at dinnertime when city workers fought traffic to get home. Around midnight, the muffled rumbling of trucks that were unloading supplies at the hospital storage area could sometimes be heard, and at the magical hour of 4:00 AM when the night wrapped the hospital in peaceful silence, an occasional owl’s hoot could be heard in the trees outside . . . 

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. . . Upon entering Granmaria’s room, Ana found a woman who looked Ana’s mother’s age in a hospital uniform standing at the bedside holding something right up to Granmaria’s face. Startled, Ana said to the woman, “Who are you?” . . . The woman turned to face Ana and introduced herself. “My name is Mrs. Harvey and I’m a respiratory therapist. That means I use various kinds of breathing equipment and medicines to help people having difficulty breathing. And, by the way, who are you?” . . .

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. . . This was when she overheard the hushed conversation of three nursing employees on the other side of the counter. Unaware that she was so near, they were talking about things they had heard were missing . . . “Whoever is doing it likes books. Paperbacks in particular. This has happened several times in the last few weeks, in fact,” said one nurse. “From patients’ rooms? Or from the gift shop, or are they things visitors have left in the lobby?” asked another voice . . .

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. . . the physical therapist looked back at Ana and added a final comment. “Ana, remember, for when you are older, there are so many jobs in hospitals. Many people find their way into jobs almost by accident. For example, when I was in high school, I wanted to be an auto mechanic because I liked fixing my dad’s truck with him. While I was on the football team, I tackled someone and injured my knee real badly. My doctor sent me to a physical therapist who helped me to walk normally again. And my dad said since I understood something about how trucks work, I could understand how bodies work and become a physical therapist myself. So my dad was right.”. . .