Reality Check 9

"Perhaps Ralph needs to have a reality check," thought the nurse, as she recalled his worried look on the previous evening. "Maybe there is something that I don't know about, happening to him."

At times, it took a long time for patients to confide in her, but she was always kind to them and patient. If something new or different was happening in their lives, they would usually confide in her. It meant finding the right time or creating an opportunity to talk with them.

"I will take my blood pressure cuff with me, the next time I take Ralph's medications to his room."

The medication system was such that the nurse was responsible for administering the medications during the daytime and early evening, and then she had to make sure that each one of the residents knew how to take any other medications they required at night.

"I have always thought that this system is terribly risky," she said to herself. "What if somebody make a mistake? In nursing, there is no room for error."

She shook her head at the very thought of administering the wrong medication to someone.

"What if a resident or someone else helped him or herself to the drugs in the medicine room, last night? There is no end to the possible 'what ifs' that could have happened. There really ought to be a night nurse, too."

When she had made the suggestion a number of years ago, the matron had responded angrily, "What do you think this is, a nursing home?"

The nurse knew better than to suggest it to her again.

"I think the matron needs a reality check too, as she is reliving a time when there were almost no medications administered to anyone. Nowadays, it is almost impossible to keep track of all of the new medications and the administration of them. The potential side effects alone are horrendous, not to mention the possible chemical reactions and the interaction of different drugs."

The matron hurriedly tiptoed past the nurse's office, but not without being seen. The security guards picked her up immediately on their monitors. In fact, they caught her every single time she came in late, but did not know what to do about her tardiness.

They also watched her ragging out the nurse in the hallway, on a regular basis. It was almost funny at times. The security guards all knew the young nurse worked non-stop and deserved to be treated better. The matron did not get a chance to berate her, when Ralph was waiting for her.

"Three patients lights are on! One on this end of the building and two on the far end. Time to run."

At this time of day, it was usually wiser for her to answer the lights in person, so off she went.

In her mind's eye, she was still envisioning the joy on her parent's face the previous evening, when they saw the entire family gathered together for their anniversary celebration.

"We pulled it off," the nurse thought to herself. "They had no idea at all, in fact, they thought that everyone had forgotten their anniversary."

She smiled.

The first resident was Leigh, a young senior with severe Parkinson's disease. She was frightened by the rumors about Amos and her tremors were intensifying. Reassuring her was difficult because as a nurse, she did not have the answers Leigh needed, but she tried.

"It is going to be that kind of a day," she thought to herself. "I pray that they find Amos soon."

The other two lights were women in rooms located at the other end of the building. They knew each other well, almost too well. A lot of their symptoms were often related to each other's and stress of various kinds.

Lanetta was tall and thin, Rosetta was short and fat. When one had symptoms, the other invariably had ones that were worse. Separating them for a while, often resolved a lot of their problems, so the nurse sent them both back to their own rooms to rest with instructions to come down to the doctor's office when he came in after lunch, if their symptoms persisted.

One had a headache, the other, a stomach ache. The nurse quickly made a note about each one. Interestingly, both of them had eaten the same breakfast, so she noted that, too.

"A lot of their problems would be solved if they lived on separate ends of the building."

Lanetta and Rosetta had normal blood pressures and temperatures. They did not appear to be pale, flushed or sweating. Neither of them had been vomiting, but both said they felt nauseated.

"Stress about Amos could do that, so could food poisoning." The nurse dreaded the thought of that. "I will be back in about an hour to check on you," she had promised them. "Sometimes I feel like nursing is a master juggling act in terms of time, but I cannot remember even one time when these two ladies did not have their symptoms at different times. A reality check for each of them might be indicated too."

"I am not going to prepare the medications for Amos for now. He could be anywhere."