Senator Walsh Just Doesn't Understand - Nurses always hold a deck of hearts in their hands

Here is a poem that was submitted to allnurses through Facebook by one of our readers in response to Senator Walsh's disrespectful remark about nurses playing cards. With her permission, we will gladly share it here with our readers.

Published

Specializes in Peds, Med-Surg, Disaster Nsg, Parish Nsg.

Submitted by Martha Crowninshield O'Brien

Dear Senator Walsh,

One Good Night...

Sanity and lightening speed,
Are precious commodities indeed.
Delivery Suite abounds with noise,
(and little girls and little boys).
Staffing is in disarray,
Spiraling downward night to day.
Those remaining try their best,
But staffing is a daily test.
Supplies, at best,
Are out of sight,
(As we discover night to night).
How much work can one nurse do,
Saddled with the load of two?
All my nights run into days,
Less rare sleep; fatiguing haze.
Lately it’s been hard to know,
If days will come, so I can go.
I’m tired of this crazy pace,
And fairly sick of the no-win race.
I REALLY want to be a nurse,
But I think delivery might kill me first.
My health is shot, my spirits too,
Paralleling staffing crew.
I see no anecdote in sight,
And all I ask is ONE GOOD NIGHT!
By: Martha Crowninshield O’Brien RN
10/22/1996

Nurse of Hearts Addendum (written especially for Senator Walsh):

In between emergent birth,
Hemorrhage, and sometimes death,
We deal the cards, and take a breath.
We toss the deck into the air,
And hope it lands on the side of care,
We duck and weave around that mess,
Fanning out to do our best.
The cards spread out along the floor,
But no one’s left to keep the score.
As that deck dirties in the lounge,
And all of us are forced to scrounge,
Call lights chirp their endless trill,
And always, nurses stay until.
There is rare to absent time for break ,
With so many precious lives at stake.
The cards lie untouched on the floor,
As tortured nurses pass the door,
They don’t detour to play a hand,
The Senator doesn’t understand.
But when SHE is in a patient bed,
She may reflect on what she said.
She’s wrong; ignorant in that regard,
So we must push, and teach her, hard.
Meanwhile, she’s right about one fact,
Though, unfortunately, devoid of tact,
A deck is full of diamonds,
Flush with hearts,
And so many other moving parts.
Four suits and the jokers too,
Sounds more like administration goo.

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