Entering the Patient’s Room
How should we enter a patient's room? Poet and nurse practitioner Cortney Davis reminds us that our physical presence is an essential part of the healing encounter. Now, with so many patients unable to have their loved ones at their bedside, our physicality takes on added importance. "Even if a two second hesitation is impossible, maybe there can be an emotional pause, moving away from the turmoil and turning a focused beam of compassion onto the patient we approach," Ms. Davis told us. She wrote this poem after her own experience as a patient. "When I was a patient, hovering between could live, could die, a nurse came and placed her hand on my arm, saying nothing. She simply remained there, waiting with me, and I felt completely and competently cared for." I love her vision of light emanating from her patient's wounds. May we all notice this light, and bring our own, every time we enter the room. Ms. Davis gave us permission to post this poem ahead of print; it will be be published in June as part of her collection "I Hear Their Voices Singing: Poems New & Selected."
Entering the Patient’s Room
by Cortney Davis
Knock, then enter with quiet steps,
remembering that you carry with you
news of another world.
Be attentive, noting
the placement of chairs, the presence
or absence of flowers, of cards tacked to the wall
as if to take upon themselves a measure of pain.
Look at the woman resting in bed,
seeing around her the light
emanating from her wounds; go directly
to the bedside, not afraid to take her hand
or simply sit beside.
Speak your name, or wait,
saying nothing. Remain steadfast,
while the hospital clock offers its silent hours.
Let her mind and her body be all that matters.
Let this time be sufficient to the task at hand.
