Seducing The Boss (Pulse #2) - Mari Carr Page 0,25
Chief Nursing Officer position.”
“Don’t start that again. I’ve told you a million times. I’m very happy where I am.”
“Come to the dark side with me, Sara. You’d make an amazing administrator.”
“I have a happy buzz going thanks to this wine. Don’t screw it up for me.”
He chuckled. “You knew a conversation about work was bound to come up at some point this weekend.”
She took a sip of her wine, sighing heavily. “Yeah. I think we’re both more tied to our jobs than is healthy.”
Kellan liked to play it cool when it came to his role as a hospital administrator, but she saw the long hours he put in. Unfortunately, his job as CEO often put him in the enemy camp. She wasn’t sure how he could know so many of the medical personnel saw him as the bad guy and not let it affect his willingness to work his ass off for them.
“Put me out of my misery, Scrubs. Take the damn job. Nobody else is as qualified as you.”
“Nope. Besides, whether you realize it or not, you need me in the emergency room. We’ve lost some great nurses lately. Turnovers are high. I don’t want to contribute to that.”
“Yeah. I know. But I struggle to see what it is about the ER that keeps you there. Seems like pretty thankless work. I’m offering you a substantial raise here.”
She sat up, deciding now might be the perfect opportunity for her to present her case about the emergency room. After all, they were pleasantly full, sexually sated, and sufficiently tipsy. They’d had numerous arguments in the past about her department and what he perceived as a lack of efficiency. Maybe tonight he’d really listen to her side.
“I’m a nurse, Kellan. Helping people is never a thankless job. But I’m not going to lie, that job is made a million times harder by a bunch of bullshit bureaucracy.”
“Say that five times real fast,” he joked. “Bunch of bullshit bureaucracy. Bunch of bullshit bureaucracy.”
She laughed before she could stop herself. Then she put them back on track. “I’m not kidding.”
His smile faded into a grimace. “Do we really have to do this tonight?”
“You started it.”
He lifted his hand, a gesture of surrender. “I guess I did.”
“Five minutes.”
He pretended to glance at a watch he wasn’t wearing. Neither of them was wearing much, actually. He’d donned a pair of shorts, and she was sporting his soft cotton T-shirt. It was emblazoned with the New England Patriots’ logo.
“We’re losing nurses because the job is almost impossible to do with any sort of humanity. We’ve doubled the number of rooms in the ER in the past five years, and with those damn times you keep imposing on us, it’s hard for us to keep up. I became a nurse because I like people, like talking to them and taking the time to find out what’s wrong. The patients are in pain and afraid. Sometimes what they need as much as medicine is reassurance that they’re going to be okay.”
“This is standard Nursing 101, Scrubs.”
She felt that annoyance that always twinged whenever she and Kellan talked about work. “I can’t do my job when I’m watching the clock. Lately I feel more like a member of a NASCAR pit crew than a nurse. It used to be when one of my colleagues took a job in another department I’d ask her why she was leaving. Nowadays, I congratulate her for hanging in there so long.”
Kellan sat up as well, facing her. “I get that, Sara. I really do. But you have to understand you aren’t the only one feeling the pressure of the shift in the medical system. I’m under similar constraints from the Board of Directors. We need to start looking at ways to streamline, to increase the output. The system of supply and demand is one of the most fundamental concepts in economics.”
It was an argument she’d heard too many times before. “Hospitals don’t exist simply to hit a bottom line. It’s not a factory or a numbers game. It’s about caring for people who are sick.”
Kellan set his wineglass on the ground and then took hers, placing it next to his before he rose. “And without that bottom line, the hospital would be forced to close its doors. And the sick would have nowhere to go.”
Her lips curved up. “So it’s the old chicken-egg scenario. Which is more important?”
Kellan took her hands and pulled her from the lounge chair. She stepped into his arms