Over at dVerse Poets Pub, Grace in OpenLinkNight has been asking for a poem of our own choosing. A week or so ago, one of my grandsons – an F2 Junior Doctor, fainted whilst working on his hospital ward. He has fainted once before for much the same reasons as this poem explores… Junior Doctors as they are called, have been on a cycle of strikes for months now, here in England!
Fainting is not a feminine attribute
Nor yet a signal effect of fear
When the wave comes upon you like Canute
You cannot command the tide “Disappear!”
Long hours, small meals, emotional turmoil
These will do the trick of draining blood
Effects of low blood pressure you cannot foil
And you will fall right where you stood
Causing alarm to staff and patients
But quickly picked up, handled with patience
Nurses have seen these faints before and told
The management of overworked young doctors
Who, stress-loaded, sleep and food-deprived, folded
Nurses cannot be the Doctor’s Proctors
Can’t change the way the system’s moulded
So Junior Doctors do the very best you can
Demand more pay, less hours
Take every chance to stick it to “the Man”
For by your bedside we can’t bring now banned flowers…