Page 26 of The Night Shift
Mr Zeller positioned his finger on the spray cap and was just about to direct an aerosol of essential oils into his eye before Violet reached out to turn it around. She was surprised to note that he didn’t bark at her for intervening. He managed to spray it onto his pillow successfully after the second attempt and Violet saw him take a deep breath in, closing his eyes for a moment.
‘Smells a little like my Magda,’ he said, fixing his eyes on Violet once more. ‘Not sure it’ll help me sleep but– it smells nice, I’ll grant you. A lot better than the gravy and piss this ward usually smells of.’
‘Well, I’ll take that as a ringing endorsement,’ said Violet, laughing. ‘Shall I feed that back to the manufacturer? “Smells better than gravy and piss.”’
He chuckled along with her as he fished around in the rest of the paper wrapping for the foam ear plugs. Violet didn’t interfere as he pushed them into his ears– even though it looked like a struggle with his arthritic fingers– and eventually he gave her one of his cracked teeth smiles.
‘Bliss!’ he said under his breath as he registered the relative silence. He then allowed Violet to help him unwrap the eye mask and position the elastic at the back of his head before pinging it down over the bridge of his nose and breathing out contentedly. Violet even thought she might have heard him mutter something about aHappy Christmas to you too, Dr Wintersas she moved away from his bed, but she couldn’t have been sure of it.
It was only on the way back to the nurses’ station that she remembered that she had been intending to check his obs chart and make sure that his Do Not Resuscitate status was coded but there was no hurry and besides, Cindy wanted to speak to her about John’s Campaign.
‘I’ve spoken to one of the nurse managers, Mark. He’s going to add the campaign to the agenda for the next clinical board meeting,’ she said breathlessly, returning to the desk after she’d finally managed to wrestle Mr Adoji into his pyjamas. ‘He thought it was a good idea– especially when I said it would reduce the burden on the nursing staff and likely improve clinical outcomes. And he was very impressed when I told him the idea had come from one of the junior medical team. He wanted to know which doctor it was. I told him, Dr Winters, my foundation doc on nights this week.’
‘But it was you who made me think of it,’ said Violet, smiling slightly at Cindy’s taking ownership of her in such a way. ‘What with Mrs Jenson and her train trips down to the Dorset coast. How is she by the way? I haven’t seen her on the ward.’
‘Well,’ said Cindy conspiratorially, ‘I managed to get her a side room and although it’s notofficialpolicy yet, I figure if they’re happy to discuss this campaign at the board meeting, it’s only a matter of time, so I thought I’d bend the rules a little. Son was able to stay until she went to sleep a few hours ago. She’ll be fine now– sleep right through, no wandering off to the bus-stop worrying about boiled eggs and whether she’s packed her sun hat. It’s all good.’
‘Excellent,’ said Violet, genuinely pleased that their plan had worked. ‘Now all we need to do is find a side room and a relative willing to stay with every single one of our confused patients!’
‘Pfft.’ Cindy made an indeterminate noise of derision. ‘That’s highly unlikely as well you know, but it’s a start. And while we’re waiting for Christmas miracles there are a few jobs to be getting on with here for you as well as me.’ She consulted her list. ‘Have you got time to re-site Mrs Chambers’ cannula? It’s blocked. And the new chap in four needs blood cultures doing. And we need a fresh drug chart for Mrs Carmichael. I’ve written everything out, I know you’ve been busy, so you just need to sign it.’
‘Sure,’ said Violet, pulling the chart across the desk and checking through the drug names and doses. She signed them off with a flourish. ‘Thanks, Cindy, that’s saved me a lot of time. I’ll do the cultures now, build up to Mrs Chambers’ venflon– I suspect her veins are shot.’
Cindy looked sympathetic. ‘They are pretty flimsy. And she’s on warfarin so she’s got bruises all the way up both arms, poor love, looks like she’s been thrown down the stairs. If you can just get a pink in that would be brilliant.’
Violet grimaced. ‘I’ll see what I can do.’
* * *
Thirty minutes later and Violet had successfully taken Mr Grant’s blood cultures, reviewed eleven sets of pathology results and written up two new fluid charts, but she was no further forward with getting intravenous access into Mrs Chambers despite numerous attempts, the patient wincing delicately every time Violet tried. After the fifth unsuccessful go Violet mumbled her apologies, returned to the desk and put her head in her hands. Her tea had gone cold but Cindy immediately slid a fresh mug into her hands and Violet was so touched that she didn’t even complain about the shade of it.
‘No joy?’ Cindy inclined her head towards the mess of bloody cotton wool and spent needles in Violet’s tray.
Violet shook her head miserably. ‘No, and she’s going to need her antibiotics soon, isn’t she? I’d better call Anjali, ask her to do it– I just feel so bad getting her up here to tidy up after me. She’s got a mountain of people to clerk in down on MAU.’
Cindy raised her eyebrows and nodded. ‘Ahhh, yes. The granny-dum?—’
‘Granny-dumpers,’ Violet finished for her. ‘Yes, I heard about that. Seems like they’re all being dumped as we speak.’
‘I wouldn’t assume Anjali could do it easily anyway,’ said Cindy soothingly. ‘Mrs C’s got hellish veins. What you want is an anaesthetist. Is that Gus still on nights? Give him a bleep.’
‘Oh, no, I couldn’t,’ said Violet quickly. ‘He’s not on my on-call team. I’d just be throwing extra work at him.’
Cindy smiled fondly. ‘He’s a lovely one though. He won’t mind. Some of them do, I grant you, but not Gus. You ask any of the nurses. He’s an absolute sweetheart. Never shouts, never throws his weight around. Never says he’s too busy or important. Here, I’ll bleep him for you.’
‘No– I…’
But Cindy had already picked up the phone and tapped in his number.
A minute later and the phone rang, Violet went to grab it but Cindy beat her to it. ‘Hi, Gus,’ she said. ‘Cindy here on ward ten. Wondered if you might be able to help us with a cannula for Mrs Chambers. I know it’s a bit below your pay grade, but our lovely Dr Winters has had a good go and she’s losing the will to live. Dr Winters I mean, not Mrs Chambers, although the same might be applicable.’
There was a pause and then Cindy laughed appreciatively. ‘Excellent,’ she said. ‘Thank you.’ She replaced the receiver with a beaming smile and shook her head indulgently. ‘Such a lovely boy,’ she muttered to herself.
She turned to Violet. ‘Cavalry’s on its way,’ she said. ‘Come on, let’s get a fresh tray and get rid of that crime scene.’ She indicated Violet’s current steri-tray with a smile.
Gus arrived within minutes, strolling onto the ward with his usual air of relaxed calm. Violet was just leaving the supply cupboard, concentrating on the tray of needles in front of her and before she knew it she’d bumped right into him.
‘Oh, sorry– gosh,’ she said. ‘Are you alright?’ She checked to make sure nothing had fallen off her tray and impaled him.
