Michael Rosen doesn’t remember much about his 48 days in an intensive care unit when he was hit with Covid-19 two years ago. But thanks to a patient journal diligently kept by the nurses, the poet and former children’s laureate knows how faithfully and compassionately they cared for him.
“They were wonderful. In the diary they tell me how they held my hand, they talked to me, they sang to me, they kept me awake when they were worried because my blood pressure was dropping dangerously, they shaved me, they turned me around, ”he said.
The 76-year-old man was told he had a 50/50 chance of survival before being put into an induced coma for more than a month. Since his near-death experience, he has said that he feels compelled to speak about his gratitude to those who saved his life.
Now, in honor of nhs nurses and other healthcare workers, Rosen has written a new poem called This Is You, You’re Looking at You. With reports of 40,000 nurses leaving the NHS last year due to stress, she also helped launch a new app, ShinyMind, aimed at supporting nurses’ mental health and general wellbeing.
“When I was in the hospital, I could see the kind of stress the nurses were under, but it was only when I got out that I really understood this,” she told The Guardian. “In my intensive care ward, where the mortality rate was 42%, the nurses who typically work one nurse per patient were working with three or four patients. They had to repeatedly dress in full PPE, nurses were getting sick, some of them died.”
All of this, Rosen said, was very stressful. “In fact, when I met some of the nurses afterwards, one or two said that they had found it extremely difficult, if not impossible, to continue. I think of myself at her age, and if I had been able to handle that kind of mental and physical stress, day after day. No I would not.
The poem suggests that nurses “take a moment” for themselves. “Are there questions you can ask or even make suggestions about how to treat yourself well? No one can make sacrifices all the time. You just end up trying to run on empty. So I wanted to help. A way to give something back to them.”
It was important for nurses to “monitor their mood, monitor their health, use their breaks and time off to get out of the workplace,” Rosen said.
It comes amid warnings that the NHS is on its knees after years of underfunding due to austerity. Hospitals and clinics are understaffed, waiting lists are record high, and ambulance staff was unable to answer nearly one in four 999 calls last month.
Nurses from all over the UK will go on strike for the first time for two days in the fortnight before Christmas after ministers rejected his pleas for formal talks on NHS pay.
Rosen called the National Health Service a “brilliant and wonderful invention”, adding that a national health service was the way a people or a nation took care of itself.
“The NHS involves the cooperation of thousands of people every second, every minute, every hour of every day,” he said. “Every day there are millions of interventions that help people. This is a collective effort of mind and body that is a testament to what human beings can do for one another.
“We should have treasured this institution, supporting it, improving it, making sure it is there solely for the purpose of helping people.”
He said he supported the nurses’ intention to strike because he “confidents” their decision. “The fact that nurses have never taken this level of action before tells us how excited they must be. I don’t see it as my job to arbitrate what they’re worth. A group of dedicated workers under enormous stress have made a democratic decision,” she said.
Rosen came out of a coma after 40 days and spent three weeks in rehab. The author of Let’s Go Bear Hunting published a book last year, many kinds of lovein which he wrote about his stay in the hospital and his return home.
a children’s book, Sticky McStickstick: The friend who helped me walk againhe also detailed his transformation from a man who couldn’t fend for himself to a grandfather proudly walking home into the open arms of his loving family.
He has said that he found his rehabilitation experience “utterly childish”, so it made sense to write a children’s book about it. On one occasion he was told to drop a balloon; in another, he was relearning how to get up from a bench and was told to put his hands behind himself and his nose over his toes.
“The nurses were there to help the physical and occupational therapists teach me how to stand, walk with a frame or cane, and then walk without assistance,” she said. “They were incredibly good-humored about it, friendly and helpful.”
East It is You, Are Looking at You by Michael Rosen
This is you.
You are looking at yourself
Look closely.
Close.
Listen to the breath.
It’s calm?
Or is there a bit of a gasp
or a rapture there?
What about the walk?
Look at the ride.
In control, right?
Feet roll from heel to toe
they?
Whats Next?
What about the eyes?
Look closely into the eyes.
The eyes tell you a lot.
The skin around the eyes.
Is it tight?
More on one side than the other?
And that’s a frown?
Is it always there?
or can soften?
This is you.
You are looking at yourself
Now what comes next is more difficult.
See if you can notice any part of you
that’s tight, tense,
a part of you that you’re holding
tighter and tenser
of what should be
and you don’t know why:
a shoulder maybe
one side of your neck?
Is there a way that I can be looser?
This is you
You are looking at yourself
Now this is difficult.
we will enter
What about the dream?
Honestly.
Do you sleep through the night?
Or do you stay up in the middle of the night?
and you don’t know why?
What do you think about?
The previous day
come in and sit there to keep you awake?
tomorrow
come in and sit there to keep you awake?
Have you ever talked to someone?
about what keeps you awake?
You could, you know.
Sometimes talking about it
chase away the things that keep you awake.
This is you
You are looking at yourself
Are there things you could do?
Who would take care of you?
Places you could go
people you could see
Shows you could watch
Things you could do.
What are they?
Close your eyes.
Imagine that you are doing them.
Imagine that you are doing them.
Imagine that you are doing them.
Have you ever tried ways
to express what you feel?
He drew?
Writing?
Movement?
What would you draw?
What would you write?
How would you move?
Imagine that you are doing them.
Imagine that you are doing them.
Imagine that you are doing them.
And you know why I ask you
to ask you all these questions
No?
It’s for that old, old reason:
if you don’t take care
you can’t take care of others.
This is you.
You are looking at yourself
