person
Nadezhda Osipovna
also: Надежда Осиповна, русалка, the mermaid, Nadezhda Osipovna
The hospital's twenty-seven-year-old midwife, nicknamed 'the mermaid' for her mincing walk; absent from her post the morning of the story's central scandal, she is unmoved by the doctor's outburst and goes on serenely helping him for the rest of the story, visibly pleased that the feldsher -- with whom she lived like 'cat and dog' -- has been struck.
Reading notes
- An Unpleasantness §9 Nadezhda Osipovna
The hospital midwife, first mentioned here as absent from her post; nicknamed 'the mermaid' by the hospital staff for her mincing walk (section 30).
- An Unpleasantness §30 the mermaid
\emph{Rusalka}, a water-spirit of Slavic folklore associated with drowned or unbaptized young women -- here used purely as an affectionate/mocking hospital nickname for the midwife's affected, mincing gait, not as a supernatural reference.