This book includes the previously published titles Spit & Polish and Bib & Tucker.
Spit & Polish Ruth was delighted when she was accepted into the nursing school at Kingston General Hospital. But she didn't realize how challenging it would be. She quickly finds her skills aren't up to snuff and is sent to build them up as an aide at the local tuberculosis sanatorium. It's 1946, and when Ruth arrives, she is immediately surrounded by crowds of wounded and infected soldiers, women, and children. Ruth must find her way among the dying, depressed, and too-friendly patients, managing demanding doctors and a jealous mentor, without being sent home or infected. Can she impress her seniors and be readmitted to the nursing program she so wants?
Bib & Tucker It's 1947, and Ruth Maclean has returned to nursing school at Kingston General Hospital, only to find she is on her own for yet another placement, this time in the former Rockwood Insane Asylum, now the Ontario Hospital. Ruth must confront the moral dilemmas of early mental health treatments, from electroshock to lobotomies. Can she trust herself, her colleagues, and the men who surround her, or will this be a repeat of her troubles of the year before in the TB Sanatorium? As she struggles to understand mental illness in a challenging medical and personal landscape, Ruth finds growth, connection, and hope.
