In Plain Sight
By Amy Browne
Copyright 2011 Amy Browne
Smashwords Edition
This ebook is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This ebook may not be e-sold or given away to other people.
If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each person.
If you are reading this book, and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your use only, then please return to Smashwords.com and purchase your own copy.
Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author.
In Plain Sight
The antiseptic smell of the med room never failed to invigorate Rachel. By October, she would have been a nurse at the Spruce Tree Knoll Nursing Home for 20 years, and she rarely had missed a day of work. She liked everyone, staff, and residents, but she needed to be aware of all the details involved with her patients to feel confident the care she was giving was the best. Some called her a ‘savior’. Other staff, she knew, unkindly called her ‘Nurse Ratchet’ behind her back. She could not understand those who regarded her so contemptuously. Was it because they were not as careful as she was when they gave medicine or otherwise and cared for residents?
“222A, Mr. McDonald, gets four Oxycontin, nineteen Viagra and six vials of insulin,” she recited the amounts of the required medications.
“That’s what I have on the sheet,” Larry said while checking each on the clipboard. “When I passed the morning pills, he refused the Viagra, though.”
Rachel shook her head. “Must be he wants to experience another heart attack. A fourth attack just might kill him.”
Larry laughed. “He told me again how he does not need Viagra because his missus has been dead for years.”
“I’ll try again to explain to him how this medicine helps his heart,” Rachel replied. She thought of all the news reports about the side effects of Viagra, and that most people believed the drug was good for only longer lasting erections. “Do we have any paperwork he can read about Viagra’s other uses?”
Larry brushed his graying hair out of his eyes. “I don’t know. If you can’t find the information up here, try social services.”
“Is 222B still empty?” Rachel asked.
“Yeah, it’s empty but not for long. A new admission should be here around noon,” Larry answered while he closed the med book.
Larry led the way to the room where he would provide a change of shift report to oncoming staff. He settled into his favorite chair near the door so he could leave immediately after his report.
Nancy ran into the room. “Larry, Mrs. O’Dell is having another seizure,” the nursing assistant exclaimed.
“Sugar Blossom!” Larry said, always careful to use that exclamation to cover any prohibited curse word he really thought of.
He hurriedly squirmed out of the chair. “Rachel, will you call the supervisor for me?” he asked while he followed Nancy into the hall.
Incoming staff was already filling the room. “I’ll be right back,” Rachel told them. After she had completed the call to the supervisor, she returned to the staff room with Larry’s notes and gave the report for him.
***
The more the morning wore on, the more Rachel grew irritated with both residents and staff. She had been summoned for overtime after Mrs. O’Dell’s seizure. A half-hour later, Mrs. Baker fell in the dining room and was still unconscious when Rachel watched the EMTs wheel her to the ambulance. Only Elmer, a resident who could not even remember his own name, had been present when Mrs. Baker fell, and his Alzheimer’s disease prevented a witness account of what caused the fall.