Back to College

Although the residency that this blog sprung from ended in December, I’ve been invited back to the School of Health in Social Science for the month of May to run some writing workshops with students and continue my writing about nurses.

May is a good time to come back to Edinburgh – the light on the old buildings is beautiful, the trees are finally misting over with new green, and there are interesting talks and events happening.

Last week, I went to the inaugural lecture by Professor

Charlotte Clarke

Charlotte Clarke, the (relatively) new head of school. Charlotte’s background is in nursing, and her lecture drew on years of practical and research experience in dementia care. In the talk, she challenged the habitually negative framing of the disease, and explored how we might better support those who are losing a cognitive, linear sense of themselves, but remain as human and emotionally complex as anyone else.

Towards the end of the talk, Charlotte shared a poem she had written about an inspiring encounter with a former patient. In a short space, it illuminated the theme of the lecture with a human presence. I thought it a perfect example of the particular understanding that nurses can bring to the world through expressive writing, if they give time to it.

Here is the poem:

Ahead of His Time

1980’s

Rehabilitation ward they called it

But few ever left alive

Edward

Let’s call him that

Wordlessly seeing out his days

Silent with his fragile dignity

Early shift

Time to get Edward up

Talking – monologue

Not expecting any answer

Gardening

Edward's job in years before

Lettuce and the problem of slugs

Slug pellets, salt rings, jars of beer

Tried them all

Any suggestions?

“Don’t grow them”

A silence broken!

But instantly returns

Forever, for Edward

I don’t grow lettuce now

Such ecological wisdom

Didn’t think like that in the 80s

So ahead of his time

Few words, big lesson

That has shaped my life

Work with, not against

Thank you Edward.

First published in Gilliard J. & Marshall M. (eds). Time for Dementia. Hawker Publications, London. 2010

If dementia is something that affects your life, or you are interested in understanding more about it, I can recommend the book Keeper, by Andrea Gillies – a deft blend of memoir and scientific investigation that won the first Wellcome Prize for literature in 2009. 

This week’s inaugural lecture is by the new nursing Professor, Josephine Tonks Fawcett, reflecting on a lifetime’s experience in nurse education, which I’m looking forward to very much, especially in the light (or should that be shadow?) of the Francis Report and it’s recommended changes to the way nurses are trained. Changes seized upon and expanded by the government in recent months, as if nurses were the wellspring of hospital failure. But more of that later.

You can read my interview with the inspirational Tonks here.