Significance of Betty's job

The burn on her hand has caused Betty pain and loss of function. As her job at the delicatessen requires cooking, cutting and chopping ingredients and possibly moving pots and pans around the stove, the loss of function of her right hand will impact her ability to do her job well. As stated in Part A of the PCL, she made it through the busiest time of the week only with a lot of help. She may feel a loss of independence in this situation and this may have a negative impact on her rate of recovery by affecting her outlook.
The work situation in the kitchen of her delicatessen also harbours lots of microorganisms as she will deal with lots of raw and uncooked food. This increases likelihood of Betty's burn getting infected. The fact that she was busy at work made her delay treatment and only applied a dresseing herself which again exposes her to the possibility of infection.