Project X: First Day

“Morning, Dr. Craig.” Quera greeted behind the desk. It was my first day at the office, and I was carrying a box of my belongings in my hands. 

“Quera.” I nodded back to her and tried to grasp the handle, but my fingers fell short. Thankfully she had been watching and opened the door for me. “Thanks.”

“Sure. Your hands are pretty full as it is. Can’t say your day will get any easier, unfortunately.” Quera looked at the paper in her hand, as if emphasizing that my first day here would be extra busy. “You have two new clients: Macy Gillman is fifteen months old and is coming in for her wellness checkup. Jake Mellis is four—coming in with an earache and fever that’s been going on for the last couple of days.   

                                                                        

Setting the box on my desk, I took the paper that she had offered me. Looking it over, there were another few names scribbled down on the schedule.  

“There are also three more that have been scheduled since yesterday evening—their files are on your desk—and at least two more parents have left messages, but haven’t called back yet.”

 “Let me know if they do.”

“I wouldn’t be doing my job if I didn’t.” She chimed in, walking towards the door and spinning around on her heels. “Dr. Wilson will be here around nine, Dr. Kayes is already in her office, and Dr. Louis is off today. And your first patient is scheduled at 8:30.”  

“Alright.” Placing the box of my belongings to the side, I sat down with a jittery sigh. My office was painted a plain white, with a connected desk in the middle of the room;

A grey file cabinet had been placed in the left back corner.

“I’ll leave you to get settled in.” Quera closed the door, leaving me to look over the files. My first being: fifteen month old Macy, who was coming in to get her well child visit and necessary shots. From the papers that had been placed in the file, there was a transfer fax from about three days ago, from a hospital in St. Louis, Missouri.

Jake Mellis was a patient of Dr. Elision’s—who had moved back East about a month ago—and had been a normally healthy boy, with an occasional ear infection or virus.

Callie Jensen, Davis Hammond, and Andie Keller had also been patients of Dr. Ellison’s—most of them since they were little. I suddenly felt like I had big shoes to fill, as much as my replacement probably was feeling back home.

“Dr. Craig?” A knock on the door, had me looking at my watch, and closing the file in my hand. A red haired woman dressed in maroon scrubs, was now peering into my office.

“Yes.”

“I’m Sarah Jones, one of the pediatric nurses.” She slipped in and closed the door. “I was working with Dr. Elision, until she departed last month.”

“It’s nice to meet you, Sarah. I’m Alexx.”

She smiled in return, looking around the office; then down at the box. “I see that you’ve started to settle in.”

“I’m working on it.”

Stacking the files, she offered. “I’ll take those. The way we do charts is: you have a little time to look over your patients charts. . . I will come in about five minutes before and grab them and put them in order at the front desk—at least until you get used to the system here. Then usually it’s optional to look over any charts when you come in, and they’ll just be placed at the back desk until your patients check in. I’ll let you know when your patient comes in, and you just grab the file when you check into the room. ”

“Sounds easy enough. It was kind of like back at the other hospital that I worked at.”

Sarah nodded, looking at her own watch on her wrist. “I will take all the vitals before you come in, and let you know of anything you need to know before you go into the room. And depending on if your day is busy, or you need a break; I can usually handle the majority of things that come in here. Unless it’s something serious, of course.”

“Of course. That’s all good things to know.”

She looked at her watch again. “Well, your first patient should be coming in right about now, so I’ll go ahead and get started, and grab you in a few minutes.”

“Sounds good.” With another smile, she disappeared out the door. I thought that now was more than a good time to make this place feel more like home.