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Ben Offa-Jones
Poetry
The edges of the room are soft and blurry,
Tired, damp eyes shrink and swell
Adjusting to the plastic brightness
Of the piercing fluorescent light.
Slumped shoulders, an aching back,
A contorted face of twisting muscles
Hidden beneath.
Striving to find the right expression
For this occasion.
A searching deep within
To find those chosen words,
That sympathetic gesture.
But the body is weak,
Fatigued from a gruelling shift
And only a murmur squeezes through
A dry, exhausted throat.
A painful “I’m sorry”,
A crumpled smile
Is all he has left to give.
Tired, damp eyes shrink and swell
Adjusting to the plastic brightness
Of the piercing fluorescent light.
Slumped shoulders, an aching back,
A contorted face of twisting muscles
Hidden beneath.
Striving to find the right expression
For this occasion.
A searching deep within
To find those chosen words,
That sympathetic gesture.
But the body is weak,
Fatigued from a gruelling shift
And only a murmur squeezes through
A dry, exhausted throat.
A painful “I’m sorry”,
A crumpled smile
Is all he has left to give.
The poem projects a vision of the future. The title reveals the situation taking place, a tired doctor breaking bad news to a patient or maybe a relative. I have not acknowledged the person receiving the news completely, instead, favouring an approach where only an impression is given of someone else in the room. I wanted to focus the attention onto the doctor’s thoughts and feelings to illustrate my own worries and concerns for the future.
While we all know how we would like to deal with a patient or relative when a situation such as this arises, I wanted to portray a reality to this confrontation. We are all human beings and, while we know what we should say, the correct way we ought to act, we are susceptible to both mental and physical fatigue, affected by stresses and emotional strains which hinder our performance as doctors. Unintentionally, we can cause harm or upset our patients and their families.
The poem outlines fears I still have as a student medic, soon to enter the medical profession.
Whole Person Care – Year One
I think the poem highlights really well one of the biggest fears I have as well when I start working. I really like the fact that the person receiving the news is not acknowledged as when a doctor is at a point they are so tired their tiredness gets the better of them and they may not see the patient as a specific individual but just another thing to do today before going home and this will no doubt affect the patient negatively.
This poem explores the difficulty of putting the patient first, especially in a very tragic situation, whilst still acknowledging how strenuous this is for doctor. The anonymity of the doctor relates the situation to many medical professionals (as well as those aspiring to be). It is important to recognise these positions that doctors find themselves in so that we can better address the mental and physical damage that an overworked and exhausted doctor can have both on themselves and on their patients. Overall, this poem is very effective in portraying these situations and I would imagine it resonates both with doctors as well as those currently training, and like myself are anxious about being in those situations.