The First.

For someone who had other people's lives in her hands, Amanda fell into too many trances.

“Chief, Chief Amanda, what do we do with the boy?” Ruby, the student nurse, asked Amanda.

“Check his vital signs” nurse Amanda finally said after coming out from a brief trance.

Everything seemed to be going pretty well that Wednesday. All the patients in the ward were well fed, their drugs were administered on time and their needs were tended to. The nurse in charge alongside the two understaff had to go and pay a visit to their colleague who just survived an accident. The nurse in charge left the patients in Nurse Amanda's care with hopes that there wasn't going to be any emergency.

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“Ma'am, what happened to your child?” Nurse Amanda asked, still stifling her nervousness.

“He was being chased by a dog while on an errand. He fell and hit his head by the gutter, hence the deep wound” the parent narrated to the best of her ability.

“Okay ma'am. Is this your child's first time here in the hospital?”

“Yes”

“Then you need to get him a card from the next building. Without the card, we cannot attend to him” Amanda said.

Frantically, the boy's mother ran over to purchase the card. Meanwhile, Amanda was having a nervous breakdown. She wasn't yet a certified nurse which was always her excuse for not getting involved in emergency cases. Before now, all she did was take care of convalescents and that was it.

“Chief Amanda, are you sure we shouldn't call the nurse in charge to report this emergency?” Ruby suggested.

That was obviously the most sane thing to do despite the fact that the nurses on duty were already long gone and the child would have already lost consciousness due to excessive loss of blood before any of them returned. Nonetheless, Amanda called to report. On the other end, a solemn yet audible voice could be heard.

“I hope all is well Amanda.”

“Not at all ma'am. We just got an emergency case with a deep cut slightly above the child's eyebrow. The intervention would be to stitch up the wound but I have never done anything like this.” one could easily sense the tension in Amanda's voice.

“Look Amanda, you have to calm down. Have you checked the patient's vital signs?”

“Yes chief.”

“How bad is it?”

“The child could lose consciousness in the next thirty minutes if the wound isn't sutured.”

“We are over an hour's drive away from the hospital and the afternoon shift nurses do not arrive for another two hours. You need to do this yourself Amanda.”

“But ma..am” Amanda stuttered.” I have no idea how to start. I have watched you suture wounds a thousand times but that's just it.”

“You have two options Amanda. It's either you allow the child to lose consciousness and risk the hospital being sued and our licences collected or you act like a nurse and suture the fluffing wound! The choice is yours.”

At this point, Amanda realized the graveness of the situation at hand. Taking immediate action was the most ideal choice.

“How about you take me through the procedure once again ma'am.”

The nurse on duty took Amanda through the procedure from start to finish.

“Hey, if I wasn't certain you could pull this off, I wouldn't even let you try. You have seen me suture patients more times than I can count. You've got this Amanda. Also, we are all heading back there immediately.”

The call ended leaving Amanda with some form of confidence. The parent had returned with the card and immediately Amanda got to work with Ruby's assistance . She followed strictly aseptic techniques and the procedures her chief had just outlined.

In less than thirty minutes, she was done and the boy was assigned to a bed where he was going to be closely watched for sepsis. The nurses returned shortly afterwards and headed straight to check on the patient.

“You did a pretty good job Amanda” one of them told Amanda who didn't want to leave the patient's bedside.

“I hope I never encounter such again, at least not until I'm fully certified and well grounded.”

“Never say never dear. Moreover, you didn't just save one life but all our lives. I don't even want to imagine what would have happened if you didn't take action and that too, on time.”

Amanda snickered, knowing very well what would have happened if she didn't take action; a life and certificates would have been lost.

After proper scrutiny and adequate medication, the patient was discharged and asked to avoid playing with random dogs, at least until he could outrun dogs.

Amanda, on the flip side, had carried out her first unsupervised procedure, marking a significant milestone in her journey to becoming a professional.

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