Happy Friday! My guest today is Author and Speaker Helen Starbuck, a chaptermate at Sisters in Crime-Colorado. There’s a reason writers rarely get bored. Whether at work or at play, the events and people they meet, it’s all material. Read on! ~ Donnell
By Helen Starbuck
Author Helen Starbuck
What we do to earn a living affects how and what we write. It can’t help but do so. I worked my entire professional life as an OR nurse in three major hospitals and as a private scrub nurse for a plastic surgeon. I worked briefly as an A&W car hop in Lakewood when I was a senior in high school, and the summer before entering nursing school I worked as a nurse’s aide. They all influence my writing.
The medical field, like a lot of high-stress jobs, exposes you to both the best and the worst in people—patients and co-workers alike. Those experiences gave me a better understanding of people in difficult situations and allowed me to witness their successes and their failures and experience a number of both myself. For me, that has translated into realistic characters that readers and reviewers have said they love and accurate portrayals of the consequences of high-stress occupations and of injuries and illness.
Working as a nurse also gives you some great story ideas. The first book in my Annie Collins Mystery Series was based on the clinical presentation of a patient I helped care for. I drew from her symptoms and the difficulty diagnosing what the problem was to create the plot for my book The Mad Hatter’s Son. My main character is an OR nurse, so readers have an opportunity for a glimpse into that world. My second book dealt with mercy killing by a nurse—there are a lot of famous Angels of Mercy, unfortunately.
Working in an OR is a lot like being a cop in some ways. Our jobs can be stressful and often expose us to disturbing injuries and situations. Nurses, doctors, and other healthcare personnel are subject to many untoward events that include verbal abuse and assault. Like cops, that can result in burnout and PTSD. Patients’ reactions are dictated by how well they handle anxiety and uncertainty. The same is true for medical personnel. Some handle the stress better than others and, like cops, most of us use humor to reduce our own anxiety and stress.
We have our own language and our own jokes. In 
my mystery series I try to not get too technical or use too many unfamiliar terms, yet describe the situation accurately. And I try to inject some humor. For example, when my main character talks with a neurosurgeon about a patient’s prognosis after a severe head injury, he replies, “…I just don’t know at this point. His Glasgow score is low, you know that’s not good. He doesn’t respond to commands, he’s not moving on his own, not opening his eyes; whatever happens, he probably won’t be teaching at Harvard.”
I’ve been privy to many funny moments, such as when my best friend in nursing school was kneeling at the bedside trying to empty urine from the patient’s Foley bag and the patient rolled to his side and vomited on her head. She wiped it off her face, finished the task and then said, “Gonna need a new cap and uniform, and I could really use a drink right now.” You can’t be easily offended or freaked out if you’re a nurse.
One of my own memorable experiences happened when I was young and new to the OR. I was cleaning the surgical site on a male patient in preparation for an inguinal hernia repair. Scrubbing away in the man’s inguinal area, I was mortified when he suddenly got an erection (he was not deeply anesthetized at that point). Said erection was wavering in the air while, not knowing what else to do, I tried desperately to ignore it.
Not one to miss an opportunity, the anesthesiologist leaned in and said, “You better catch that Ms. Starbuck or it’s going to contaminate your prep.” And then cackled away along with the rest of the room while I stood there beet red and gently held the erect penis away from the prep area. As a more mature OR nurse, I’d have said, “Well if you were doing a better job of anesthetizing him, then I wouldn’t have to wrangle this!”
Our writing is an expression of who we are and what we love, and it allows others an entry into new worlds and situations. The ability to write is a chance to share your world or create new ones, and that is crucial to all of us especially during this uncertain, isolating time. The act of writing is a way to escape, just like reading. Be safe, wear a mask, stay home, and write. And if you have nursing or OR questions, I’m happy to help.
About the Burden of Hate: How far would you go for someone you love? How much hate would you need to kill someone? Revenge. Hate. Fear. Not traditional wedding gifts. When convicted killer Ian Patterson escapes from prison, operating room nurse Annie Collins and fiancé assistant district attorney Angel Cisneros are forced to confront these realities head on in this suspenseful continuation of the Annie Collins Mystery Series.
Will Ian Patterson’s quest for revenge toward the two people responsible for sending him to prison—Annie Collins and Angel Cisneros—bring them face to face to settle the score once and for all? And who will survive?
About the Author: Colorado native and former OR nurse, Helen Starbuck—no relation to the coffee bunch— draws on her years of OR nursing experience for her Annie Collins Mystery Series and her love of suspense and romance to create her standalone romantic suspense novels and characters she would treasure as friends. She enjoys books about strong women and interesting men.
Follow her on Facebook (facebook.com/helensstarbuck), Instagram (instagram.com/helenstarbuck/), and her web site (helenstarbuck.com).
Wonderful post, Helen — I laughed out loud at your young-nurse surgical prep story. I also agree that what we do/have done in our professional lives is great grist for the writing mill. I look forward to reading Burden of Hate.
Patricia, thanks for stopping by. I laughed, too, at that comment, but something else occurred to me there… our younger selves vs. our older selves in writing. 🙂
Fun post. (And I laughed as well.) I’m also a Colorado native and even though I graduated from another high school, I went to Bear Creek. Love finding things in common with other writers!
Thank you everyone for the comments. There are many other stories from the OR. But Donnell’s comment about the difference between our young and older selves is true.
I enjoyed this post so much, Helen! Loved all your OR stories! I worked as a speech pathologist on hospital neuro, med/surg, rehab, and intensive care units. I loved the work at the time and it was a wonderful experience. And yes, I use those interpersonal relationships that I observed over the years in my writing. I know what you mean about funny stories and inside jokes, some of which are not so funny to those who haven’t worked in hospitals, and it would be fun to sit and trade stories sometime. I hope soon. Loved your post!
Happy to swap stories any time?
Love reading these comments. Both my mother and daughter-in-law are registered nurses. I find nurses and other medical professionals either are natural born storytellers, or by the day-in and day-out interaction, they become one. Better than a MFA in some cases 😉 When did the writing bug hit you, Helen?
Fun nursing stories! And congratulations on your books. Life does find a way to help we writers.
Donnell, posted a reply but don’t see it, so I’ll try again. I began writing fiction in junior high. My best friend and I wrote about the Beatles and passed the stories back and forth in French class (probably why it took until college and a crush on my French teacher to actually learn to speak it). Sorry if this turns out to be a repeat post?
Enjoyed the blog and had a few good chuckles. Every career has those moments when we need humor to keep us from only seeing the dark side.
Super post. I liked the comment about including humor as well as not getting too technical which can easily lose the reader.
Humor is what keeps me going these days. So glad everyone has enjoyed the post. It seems so many of us has at least some connection to the medical field. Maybe we should have a virtual happy hour and swap stories one of these days.
Thanks to everyone for stopping by. I loved Helen’s post and it was certainly relatable. I think a book that doesn’t let readers catch their collective breaths is hard to get through. Light moments are definitely called for even when the mood is so somber… Noir writers might disagree with me. I’m up for a virtual happy hour anytime. 🙂
Loved this very interesting post! Such great stories, and now I’m excited to dip into Helen’s novels.
Barbara, thank you! I just finished your Sydney Parnell series and loved them. Such a great character. Loved Clyde too. Can’t wait for the next one.