Jess had enjoyed herself tonight. It had been fun and relaxing to spend time with Kim. She was already looking forward to next weekend.
CHAPTER 14
WHAT A WASTE OF TIME. Kim massaged her temples as she made her way to her office. She had a pounding headache. Marcus, the psychiatric nurse-practitioner she was proctoring this week, had a family emergency. She had taken over his group counseling session, or at least tried to. Her session with Marcus's boys had been an exercise in frustration. Thankfully, it was her last group of the day. I can't wait to get back to the ER. Only one more week to go.
A raised voice echoed down the hall drawing Kim out of her thoughts. Now what? She quickened her pace.
Standing in the center of the nurses' station was Chris Roberts, ranting to anyone who would listen.
Slowing her stride, Kim stopped at the far side of the nurses' desk. She leaned against the counter and listened.
"I can't work with that woman. I'm a staff psychiatrist, damn it, not one of her residents. Where does she get off lecturing me in front of residents? You need to arrive in a timely manner for your psych consults, Dr. Roberts." Chris mimicked Jess's husky voice and stern posture. "It's not like I don't have other things to do besides cater to her damn ER."
Chris stalked over to Kim when he spotted her.
"You're the ER liaison, Kim. You have to talk to that woman. I won't be treated like some flunky."
Then act like a professional and do your job, Kim resisted saying. Chris might be willing to air this issue at the nurses' station, but Kim was not. "Let's go into my office and talk." Kim turned and headed toward her office without giving Chris time to protest.
Catching up to her, Chris huffed loud enough to make sure Kim heard but followed her nonetheless.
Kim opened her office door. She stepped inside with Chris right on her heels.
Chris strode across the room and flopped onto her couch. "I mean it, Kim," he said pointing a finger at her. "That woman is impossible."
I so don't need this right now! Kim was still smarting from her failed encounter with Marcus's group. The patients, all in their twenties, were without exception: over-indulged, unmotivated, self-serving whiners. To make matters worse, the men — boys really — had spent their time trying to one-up each other with increasingly vulgar innuendo. Kim knew it for the defensive behavior it was, but it was frustrating to deal with nonetheless. You can't help people who aren't ready to be helped.
Kim rubbed the back of her neck as she made her way toward her desk. She grabbed the chair in front of it and pulled it over to where Chris was ensconced on her sofa.
Chris glanced at the chair, then over at the empty space next to him on the large couch. He quirked an eyebrow at Kim.
Kim ignored the look and sat down in the chair. She had originally planned on sitting behind her desk. This was not a conversation between friends. "What happened in the ER?"
"I went down for a consult, and McKenna berated me in front of two residents. It was totally inappropriate!"
Yeah. Sort of like you ranting about the head of the ER at the nurses' station in the psych department? She was certainly surprised by Jess's behavior. In her experience, Jess didn't normally confront people with other staff members present. It just wasn't like her. Kim pushed way the irrelevant thoughts. Jess can take care of herself and her department.
"Why weren't you in the ER? Philip talked to everyone about this last week." Kim gave Chris a hard look. "When the ER pages, you need to get down there as quickly as possible. How long did it take you to answer the page?"
Chris's chin jutted out. "I was busy."
"Come on, Chris. You know as well as I do that you don't have any other duties when assigned to the ER. How long did you make them wait?"
Shifting, Chris suddenly found his shoes interesting. "Over an hour," he finally admitted.
Damn it. So much for all the fence mending I did while I was in the ER. Barely resisting the urge to strangle him, Kim asked, "What was the patient doing all that time?"
"He was in restraints, sort of ranting about the things he was seeing," Chris said.
What the? Sedating a violent, hallucinating patient was standard protocol. "Why didn't they sedate him?"
"Well…" Chris flushed and he looked down. "I might've hollered at them last time for sedating someone before I got there. I told them if they wanted my help, they weren't to sedate a patient 'til I arrived."
No wonder Jess was pissed. Kim shook her head in disgust. "And you're mad that Dr. McKenna called you on leaving a screaming patient in her ER for over an hour? What exactly do you want me to talk to her about?" she asked.
"Come on, Kim. You've worked down there. You get tossed into a room with a patient with little or no history. It's chaotic at the best of times. Total bedlam at its worst." He slammed his fist into the couch cushion. "I hate it. I don't want to be assigned to the ER anymore."
Kim wasn't surprised by Chris's attitude. She knew several psychiatrists who disliked covering the ER. Like Chris, they found the unstructured atmosphere intimidating. Ironically, that was the thing Kim liked best about the ER. It was a challenge. You never knew what was going to come through the doors next. She occasionally struggled with boredom seeing the same patients week in and week out.
So his problem isn't with Jess after all. In spite of her anger at his behavior, Chris's sudden bout of honesty made Kim willing to help him. "Okay, Chris, tell you what, tomorrow is Friday. You finish out this week and I'll take your ER rotation for next week. You take my group sessions."
"Can't you take tomorrow too?" Chris asked with a pathetic whine.
The disastrous session with Marcus's group flashed through Kim's mind. Despite trying several different approaches, she had been unable to make any headway with the group and finally ended the session prematurely. Maybe he'll have better luck.
"All right, but I'm covering for Marcus. You'll need to hold a session with his group as well."
Chris grimaced and looked ready to protest.
Ah, so it isn't just me that had trouble. That took a little of the sting out of her failure with the group. "It's that or the ER," Kim said. She had no intention of covering both Marcus's patients and the ER.
"Fine. Anything is better than the ER. I'll cover your groups and Marcus's."
The sudden strident beep of a pager filled the room.
Chris pulled the pager off his belt and looked at the screen. "Damn it."
"ER?" Kim asked.
"Who else?" Chris glanced at the clock on the wall behind Kim's desk. "Harland is on-call. He can answer it."
The end of the day shift was coming up. "His duty call doesn't start for half an hour."
Chris shrugged.
Kim clenched her fists, trying to rein in her temper.
She failed.
"Damn it, Chris! This is exactly why Dr. McKenna was pissed at you. And rightly so. What about the patient that needs your help?"
Crossing his arms over his chest, Chris remained mute.
Deciding not to waste any more time, Kim held out her hand. "Give me the pager. I'll answer it."
Chris started to hand over the pager, then hesitated. He sighed. "I'll go."
Kim plucked the pager from his fingers. "Forget it. I'll take care of it." She knew that she would do a much better job than he would. It wasn't ego. It was fact. And you'll get to see Jess. While that was true, it was an added bonus, not the motivating factor for Kim.
The whole situation cemented for Kim the ideas that had been percolating through her mind for the past three weeks. The next quarterly staff meeting was only a week away. She would find time tomorrow to meet with Philip and talk him into her plan. He could make the announcement at the meeting.