The Fall · Second Shift · Pulse Beat
She did not see it coming. It was a Tuesday, a long night, with three admissions and a code. At three in the morning, exhausted, in a lull, she sat at the desk and opened the notebook, only to read…
She did not see it coming.
It was a Tuesday, a long night, with three admissions and a code. At three in the morning, exhausted, in a lull, she sat at the desk and opened the notebook, only to read one page. The ward was quiet. She read for six minutes.
In bed twenty-two, an old woman with a heart condition went into arrest. The alarm on the monitor sounded. Fatima was up before she registered it, running, but she was forty seconds slower than she should have been. They got the woman back. But the next morning, in matron's office, there was a form, and a witness, and Mrs D'Souza with her arms folded.
"Forty seconds," said the matron, a stern, grey woman in a starched cap. "A delay. In a code."
"I was reading, Matron. For six minutes. I don't deny it."
"Six minutes of study on duty is unprofessional."
"Yes."
The matron looked at her for a long time. "You are a good nurse, Sheikh. I've always thought so. But you have been working two jobs, and the ward pays for the second." She sighed. "I'm placing you on a warning."