Page 69 of Stolen Kisses
A thin, pale woman with dry straw-like hair turned as Krista entered room 204. Her lips were pinched tight and her eyes were large and,yeah,angry. A little tremor of anxiety quaked through Krista’s body.
“Hi, I’m Krista Nelson. I’m the head nurse on the floor this week. I was told you wanted to discuss something.”
The woman folded her arms. “Yes. I want to discuss what an awful job the nurse who has been caring for Josie is doing.” The woman gestured toward her sleeping daughter. Josie’s nurse was Evelyn, who Krista had found to be hardworking and honest. And Evelyn really knew her stuff. She could usually diagnose a kid before the doctor even saw them.
“Let’s talk about it.” Krista closed the patient’s door and pulled up a chair while the mom sat on the edge of her daughter’s hospital bed.
“First off, your nurse doesn’t come when I ring the call bell. Isn’t that what the call bell is for? To call the nurse?”
Krista nodded. “Yes, ma’am. But sometimes we can’t always—”
The mother cut her off, raising a hand and her voice. “And when she does come, she doesn’t apologize for making us wait. What if it were an emergency? Do I need to call 911 to get immediate attention even when I’m in the hospital?”
“No, ma’am. If you have an emergency, the monitors will sound an alarm and—”
The mother shook her head and cut her off again, rattling off a number of other complaints. Krista finally pressed her lips together and held her tongue. She nodded and listened attentively until it seemed as if the upset mother had exhausted every single way she felt that she and her daughter had been wronged. It was tough being the parent of a sick child. Krista wasn’t a parent yet, but she’d seen it enough on the floor over the last ten years that she could empathize.
“Well, aren’t you going to say anything?” When the mother finally ended her rant, her eyes were glassy with tears. Krista wasn’t sure if they were sad tears, angry tears, or exhausted tears. She did look like she felt a little better after expelling all of her frustrations, though.
“I’m sorry if you feel your experience hasn’t been adequate. We work hard here to take the best care of our patients and want you to feel attended to. What can I do for you right now?” Krista smiled warmly at the woman.
“I want you to talk to that nurse. I want a different nurse. A better one.”
Krista shook her head. “Evelyn is a great nurse. I’ll talk to her and let her know your concerns, but please know that we never intentionally make you wait. If I might say so, you seem really stressed out.”
The mother pulled back, obviously offended.
Krista held up a hand. “Now please don’t take this the wrong way. Many of the parents on this floor are overwhelmed. It’s okay. And it’s okay to take a break and go downstairs for a coffee and a bagel, or just for a walk. We can have one of the hospital volunteers come in and sit with your daughter. They love doing that kind of stuff.”
The mother’s frown lifted just slightly. “I didn’t know the hospital did that.”
“Oh, definitely. We also have a parent-caregiver support group that meets downstairs weekly.” Krista didn’t know this patient specifically, but she knew the girl’s condition was chronic. “Childcare is provided during the group’s meeting time.”
“That’s really nice.”
“It is,” Krista agreed, feeling good about her workplace, and herself. She’d just taken the steam out of this woman’s overheated engine and now the mother was actually smiling. Krista provided the parent with all the information for the support group and promised to check back on her later before heading out.
“How’d it go?” Evelyn asked when Krista marched back to the nurse’s station.
“Awesome. She’s going to join the caregiver support group downstairs, I think. And I have a volunteer on their way to her room right now to sit with the patient and give the mom a break.”
Evelyn looked impressed. “Wow. I seriously thought she’d sent you out of the room to come fire me.”
Krista shook her head. “First off, I don’t have the authority to fire you. Secondly, you’re an awesome nurse and I would never. Thirdly, that’s exactly what the parent wanted me to do—until I talked to her.” Krista shrugged. “She just needed someone to listen. That’s all.”
“Uh-huh. Not just any someone. That was all you. Thank you.”
“No problem.”
Krista left work that evening feeling exceptionally well. Stepping inside her little townhome, she dropped her purse on the table beside the door and breathed a sigh of relief. Then she nearly jumped out of her skin when Joey whirled around in one of the rocker recliners in their living room.
“Hey, sis. We need to talk,” he said grimly.
—
For the first night since the cabin, Noah wasn’t seeing Krista. She’d told him she needed to clean her townhouse. Noah got that and he was a little relieved. He was used to having most nights to himself. Tonight would be a breather for him, even though Krista’s absence left an unmistakable void.
It only took him an hour to clean his own small space. Maybe it was time to trade his houseboat in for an actual place with a foundation, he thought, stopping dead in his tracks. He’d never considered such before, but the idea didn’t completely knock him over. His phone buzzed in his pocket. Hoping it was Krista, he pulled it out and eyed the ID. His brother Sam’s name lit up the screen.
