divulgence // luke hemmings au

42

Continued from chapter 41.

**ONCE AGAIN PLEASE BE ADVISED ABOUT HEAVY TOPICS READ AT YOUR OWN JURISDICTION**

Luke grabbed a chart from the circular desk flipping it open, it said Iris's name and her stats from her last check two hours prior.

He walked toward her room and knocked promptly on the door. "Miss Iris Springfield may I please come in?" He asked politely waiting briefly for a response.

"Sure" Iris answered and Luke let himself in formally introducing himself to the patient. "Hi, it's nice to meet you. I am Luke Hemmings, board certified nurse and I'm temporary filling in for a couple of other nurses who are on medical leave"

"Oh hi" she said, stopping herself from doodling putting her notebook and pen down on the bedding in front of her. "It's time to do a quick health assessment, is that alright with you?"

"Yeah sure" she said shyly and Luke walked over sitting on the edge of Iris's bed, putting down the chart beside him. He dug around in his pocket for about ten seconds pulling out the pulse oximeter placing it on his patients index finger. "Please stick out your opposite arm so I can manually check your blood pressure" he requested, smiling slightly and the patient followed his arms and he secured the cuff around her right arm. He put the stethoscope in his ears and placed the end of it on a vein in the patients upper arm, he inflated the cuff and got his readings. "Okay so your pressure is 110 over 78, heart rate is 91, oxygen level is at 99." He smiled reassuring Iris that this was good news.

"Now I'll check your heart and lungs and then I'll be out of your hair.. lean forward please. Take some deep inhales." She listened to him again and Luke did his lung assessment. "Your lungs sound pretty clear now lean forward and take breathe normally so I can checkout your heart."

Iris leaned back and Luke slipped the stethoscope under her hospital gown and briefly listened. He took the earpieces out when he was finished placing the stethoscope back around his neck.

He began to scribble out his findings, "did anyone ever tell you that you have a slight aortic murmur but it's nothing to worry about"

All Iris could respond with was "no" and "okay" and Luke got up and excused himself. "I'll be back soon to flush your PICC line hang tight" he left closing the door over heading back to the main desk signing off on the chart and grabbed another one.

He walked to the next room, "hey can I come in?" He asked, then a woman's voice responded, "yes you can" he walked in seeing the woman and the child in the hospital bed. "This is Nathan Sanderson right? And you must be Mrs Marie Sanderson, Nathan's mother, correct?"

"Yes! Everything's right."

"Perfect, I'm a new nurse on the floor for the time being and I'm here to do vital checks, I see in Nathan's chart that there was a refusal for the last check can you please tell me what had happened?"

""Nathan was a bit overwhelmed earlier and wanted space. He confirmed this by tapping the phrase go away on his iPad"

"Okay, I'm sorry about that. So now I'm looking back four hours ago which he allowed, and at that time he appeared to have a fever, is it alright if I take a in ear temperature? I have to make sure it didn't spike."

"Sure, but be gentle with him and make sure you talk directly to him so he can understand you and what's going on."

"Of course ma'am." Luke responded walking over to a drawer taking out the digital in ear thermometer putting on a disposable tip walking over to the boy and his mother.

Luke was now standing on the empty side of Nathan's bed which was the left he had a folder in one hand and the thermometer in the other. "Hi Nathan, I'm Luke, I'm just checking to make sure that you're okay."