AllFreeNovel
Share Us
‘Yes! Let’s go,’ Carrie allowed herself to be marched inside, and put Rory out of her mind.
* * *
The small hospital was busy, but Carrie’s first impression was of calm and friendly efficiency. Inside the automatic double doors, there sat a small reception area with a couple of members of staff behind a large desk. June approached it, and one of the staff, a middle-aged man with a ginger beard and a name tag that said Dr Daniel Musgrove, looked up and broke into a huge smile.
‘Junie! How are you?’ He beamed. ‘Did you bring me any brownies? I rely on you, you know.’
‘Dr Dan, I’d hardly forget you,’ June said, primly. She reached into her capacious brown leather handbag, produced a Tupperware container and handed it to him.
‘Oh, amazing. I’m eternally in your debt,’ Dr Dan cooed. ‘Brought a friend today, I see. Hello, I’m Dan. Nice to meet you.’ The doctor held out his hand.
Carrie shook it. She noticed that Dr Dan was very handsome: tall, and under his blue tunic, he had very muscular arms. ‘Carrie Anderson. Hi.’
‘Carrie’s interested in nursing training,’ June explained. ‘So, I said I’d show her around, if that’s all right? Give her a sense of what it’s really like?’
‘Of course. Anything for June.’ Dan gestured towards the wide corridor behind him that led off the reception area. ‘The hospital is your oyster. And if you fancy giving us a hand, let me know. We’re a bit understaffed.’
‘Me?’ Carrie placed her hand on her chest. ‘Oh, I couldn’t! I don’t know how to do anything.’
‘Well, I meant June, really. But you’re welcome to help us at lunchtime, if you like. Do the rounds with the food. And there’s always cleaning that needs doing. No qualifications needed for that.’ Dan laughed at Carrie’s expression. ‘Oh, I’m teasing! I’m not going to make you clean the wards. I can’t, anyway. You’d need to be a member of staff. But, look around, get a feel for the place, and if you have any questions, I’m happy to help. You can help at lunchtime, though. We’ll consider you a volunteer.’
‘Okay. I can probably manage that,’ Carrie said, relieved.
‘Great. You’re in good hands, here. You know, June trained most of the nurses here. We miss her like mad.’ Dan beamed at June, who looked uncomfortable at the praise, but also a little pleased.
‘Get away with you. I just did my job, that’s all. Come on, then, Carrie.’ June led her away, down the corridor that Dan had indicated. ‘We’ll see what’s going on, see if we can look in on some assessments in triage first. Do you know what that is?’
Memories of waking up in the hospital after the accident flashed into Carrie’s mind. The stark room; not knowing where she was. The beeping of the machines, the smell of antiseptic. Was it crazy, coming into a hospital again so soon after such a traumatic experience? Where she’d had to stay for what seemed like forever with her broken collarbone, that hurt every time she breathed, that was still sore now? Where she had learned that Claire had passed away, and had stared stupidly at the nurse as she’d delivered the news.
‘No. I mean, I think it’s a kind of assessment, maybe in A&E? I don’t really know.’
‘That’s right. It’s just a word that means assessment. We have a couple of rooms set aside here for that; fortunately, it’s not a hugely busy A&E service, but people do come in with emergencies and we can see them in here.’ June led Carrie into one of two curtained-off areas on a corridor. Neither were currently being used. ‘You’ll probably have been in one of these yourself at some point. It’s just a preliminary area where we can look you over,’ June explained. ‘In triage, we look at the patient first. You can see if people are pale, or they look sweaty or touch their hands to feel their body temperature. That can be an indicator of fever, of course, but also vascular disease and other things. We can touch – we call it palpate – an area if people are complaining of pain. Take your pulse, of course. We use one of these,’ June reached into a drawer and produced a familiar-looking plastic monitor, ‘and pop it on your finger to measure the oxygen saturation level in the blood. That’s called a pulse oximeter.’
‘I’ve had one of these before.’ Perhaps coming to the hospital had been a bad idea. The smell of the place was starting to get to her.
‘Yes, I expect you have,’ June ran on. ‘Other useful things we have in here: stethoscope, of course. For listening to the heart, lungs, other areas that might need investigation. This is a sphygmomanometer. We use it to measure blood pressure.’ June picked up the familiar inflating cuff Carrie had seen before. ‘Then there’s other things here, like a nasal speculum, if we have to look up someone’s nose. You wouldn’t believe the number of kids I’ve seen with beads and small toys pushed up their nostrils, over the years.’
‘I can imagine.’ Carrie smiled, trying to focus on what June was saying.
‘Are you all right, dear?’ June looked at her carefully. ‘You actually look a bit peaky. Here, sit on the bed.’
Carrie sat. ‘I’m okay. It’s just… I was in an accident recently, and… I guess being in a hospital again is bringing it all back,’ she explained.
‘Hmm.’ June sat down on the bed next to her and took her hand. ‘I know, dear. I heard. It’s terrible, what happened.’
Carrie hadn’t spoken to June about the accident, but she wasn’t surprised that word had got around by now for the choir to know what had brought her to Loch Cameron.
‘I’m sorry, I—’ Carrie broke off as a nurse opened the curtain.
‘Ah. Sorry, I didn’t know this was being occupied,’ the nurse said. ‘I’ll go next door.’
‘No, that’s all right, Bobbi.’ June stood up. ‘I was just showing Carrie around; she’s thinking about nursing training. We’ll get out of your way.’
‘Oh, aye. Well, hang on. I’ve got Mr Jones here. He’s had a fall but I dinnae think it’s anythin’ terrible. He might not mind if ye want to sit in. Get a feel for things, like.’
Bobbi, who was short and stocky, had short black hair and an immediately friendly, calm demeanour, brought in an elderly man in a wheelchair who was gamely holding a bag of peas on his elbow.
‘Are you sure? We don’t want to get in your way,’ June said.
