So you want to be a nurse?

 

 

You study until you vomit

You pass the exam with a “c.”

Staying up all night preparing

For clinicals, the next day

 

Scratching your way to the top

For a calling, that’s not you

Envying those, with titles

Drooling, to be through

 

Perhaps, you pass boards

And perhaps, you don’t

Maybe a wish granted

Don’t be so anxious lass

Your time on the floor will happen ~

So, pause: And take a breath

 

“Yes! Come in, we’re so happy to have you!”

They lie ~ You’re just a warm body, dear

Don’t be deceived ‘Nurse Green’

You’re there to assume the absurd

 

No one can tend, to the masses

That are reaching to you for help

You’re one person in a nursing pool

All ~ to be hung out to dry

 

And when there is a mistake

It’s yours! Own it!

But, in reality, check their ratios

Nurse had fourteen, instead of five

But, no one cares who matters

You’re their scapegoat! Dear one

 

Calling rude doctors at three am

Being blasted by administrators

Taking blame for being short staffed

Being diplomatic, where families concern

 

She could be your mother

He could be your father

You cry many tears over the years

However ~

No one came visiting that mattered

 

They ask you to take special care of “Nana.”

They ask you to watch, “Uncle Jo.”

But, in truth, there are ninety-six

That are special as Nana and Jo

 

He’s dying of liver cancer

He lays in excrement all day

Not because you didn’t change him

twenty-four times and may ~

Go back one more time

Where he lay at the end of the day.

 

The phone rang innumerable times

And had to stop care, from Mary

To answer, a question or wrong number

And Mary’s time is now harried

 

Moving onto the halls of moaning and crying

Pain and utter loneliness

The faces of anguish and torture

Carrying it home ~ thinking ~ awake up! It’s morning!

 

And again, on Monday,

“Short staffed today,” came report

So once again, I take Sally’s load

She’s sick from depression

Sick from the lonely hearts in bed

 

And families screaming, “poor care!”

But, they never brought love to share

Their time with Nana or Jo

Nor brought flowers to warm those in dismay

 

But, when I get home

My feet are swollen

My blood pressure is sky high

My back aches from turning dead weight

And my tears flood my face

From watching the elderly die in disgrace

 

Many years have passed

Turning three hundred pounds

Raising them up, and cleaning their butts

And watching, that others don’t drown

In their waters.

 

Wondering one day

Who’ll care for me

Will I be a Nana or Jo

Begging the only loving face I see

Please a hug, a kiss or ~

And perhaps a song

 

No, I won’t be Nana or Jo

Give me cyanide instead…

 

And so I ask you once again ~

Do you want to be a nurse?