Do More Good (5sos ot4)

Chapter 4

"Okay, Ashton, I need an update on your patients."

"Sure, be right there," the man told his boss, walking quickly to his computer to put down the extra flushes he'd been carrying and walking to the nurses station. He pulled his folded up notes paper out of his pocket, and sat in one of the wheely chairs in front of his boss.

"Right, how's 27?"

Ashton sighed.

"She's developed pneumonia because she refused to get up and walk, she resisted positioning. I have notes in the chart of her denials, even when the doctor came and told her she needed to do something besides eat pills," he shook his head.

"Okay, great. Did you document that you educated her if she didn't do as we said?" Ashton nodded. "Great, thanks for doing that," the short woman said, writing something down on the paper in front of her. It was important to document when patients refused something, because sometimes patients would turn around and try to blame the hospital for making them more sick. With all of the refusals documented and the re-education on how to improve her conditions noted in the chart, it wouldn't be their fault because the patient wouldn't do what they were telling her.

"She said she wished she knew how it was going to be before surgery, and that she wants it all to end. Also she's having blood work done as we speak, one of the techs is with her now." he stated. "Her blood sugar has been rather high lately, so they're going to do a more in depth analysis on her."

"Okay, great. 28 door, what's going on?" Monica asked once she was done writing her notes.

Monica was the head of the unit, every morning and evening all the nurses had to give her report of what was happening with each patient so she knew what was happening on the unit. As the nurse in charge, she needed to be informed in case something bad happened and she needed to make a final decision on a plan of care. Ashton told her all about what was happening with his 7 patients, and when he went to get up, she made him stop.

"I want everyone to really start taking advantage of their buddies, okay?" she told the group after they'd given updates. "It's a great resource to have, use your colleagues to bounce ideas off of, ask them to help, see if they can come up with ideas you haven't thought of. Everyone here is your friend, there's no reason to try to do everything yourself. It's bad for the patient, and for you,"

Ashton nodded along, but inside he was rolling his eyes. He knew Calum had probably mentioned something to their boss about how he wouldn't play nice, so she gave some little speech to the whole group to boost morale. Calum probably hadn't even meant to do it, he didn't seem like the guy who would whine to his boss whenever something went wrong; it was more than likely something he said accidentally, but that didn't make the brunette hate the nurse any less. He was going to cause problems. Before Calum was around, they all just did their own thing. They had the buddies, but no one cared about them. Ashton was able to just do his thing without anyone monitoring him and watching over his shoulder.

It made things so much easier and less risky that way.

He needed Calum to stop, now.

Once the meeting was dismissed, Ashton went back to check on his patients. He needed to restock his drawer with meds, as he'd given Samantha the last of her oxy. He went to the med room to see if they had any, but the cabinet was empty.

"I'm running to pharmacy," Ashton muttered to Calum as he brushed past him, cringing at the bright smile the man gave him. Calum was happy that things seemed to be turning around even after Monica's little talk. It had bummed him that Ashton wasn't making any effort, but he hadn't meant for her to make a big scene about it. But clearly it worked, so he wasn't too upset.