Elevenses

His first morning at the paediatric immunisation unit had been busy, but James was glad of the activity. Only last week he would have been laying in bed until lunchtime every day, scratching himself and eating timtam biscuits for every meal. The work was routine although he didn’t like it when the infants let rip with their wails as he jabbed them with “Hep-B combo” as the nurse called it. He was surprised that she treated him like a superior rather than a trainee: he was expecting something different when he signed up to be a Ward Orderly on work experience. He rummaged in his white coat for the keys to the vaccine cupboard, wondering how he was going to tell the identify the non-mercury innoculations. Surely it didn’t matter – just as long as he didn’t jab himself with the syringe again, like he had twice this morning.

(Elsewhere in the hospital)

Malcolm smiled to himself as he pushed his fourteenth patient into the theatre pre-op area. It was a great policy this hospital had: even experienced doctors were required to get some hands-on experience of “on the ground working”. And actually it was quite interesting getting to see the patients and the general traffic of sick people up and down the corridors. Perhaps next week he would start his real job in the immunisation unit – he assumed someone would come and welcome him, introduce him to his team, show him his new office. But for now he was happy with the smell of disinfectant and placing his hands on the worn bed rails, putting his back into it… “come on Mrs Jones, I’ll take you to surgery now.”