Dead Man's Shift

by Nathan Urban

Dead Man’s Shift, a novel, takes place over one very significant period in the life of the novel’s protagonist, Jim Toth. Jim works the night shift at a trauma center hospital. He has been a medical professional for ten years and is now in dire ear of never finding his purpose in life or working a job that fulfills his high standards of what it means to live a meaningful existence. In the last several years since beginning work on the night shift, Jim has become a very jaded, cynical young man. Once happy and possessing respect for his work and the patients he serves, Jim now feels that he is now not only wasting his life but that the very patients he takes care of night after night are not worth the modest bi-monthly paycheck and the long, tedious hours he gives up every week. Professionally speaking, Jim has hit rock bottom. The other job opportunities out there are few and far between. His job has driven him to transform from a once caring individual to a selfish, self-destructive person in danger of never finding redemption. Jim spends his off nights at bars drinking heavily and taking home strange, married women. He neglects his parents and siblings, contemplates suicide, and fantasizes about having a torrid affair with a very beautiful and very married co-worker. In the end, after seeing one too many tragic deaths in the hospital, Jim decides to just simply walk away from everything. He understands the personal and professional challenges that lie ahead of him but would rather be poor and unemployed than endure one more night of misery in a business as corrupt as healthcare.

106 pages, Kindle Edition

Published August 13, 2016