NHS Verbatim Poems

During 2023 and 2024, Kim secured funding from the Arts and Humanities Research Council to work with MFT's Local Care Organisation, in particular with three Intermediate Care Units - Buccleuch Lodge, Crumpsall Vale and Delamere House, and a complex care unit at Dermot Murphy Close. The project explored the lived experience of the staff who work in and patients who live in these units - some for a short period of time before they can get back home, some for the rest of their lives. The project outcomes included a poetry booklet, an installation, a film and a staff led verbatim poem. The verbatim poem saw writer Kim and musician Caro C work with 20 staff members across the four units and is called 'There Nowhere (Quite Like Home)' There’s Nowhere (Quite Like Home) Kim Wiltshire and Caro C   There’s no place like home, Is there? Friends, family, comfort. You can do what you want, When you want. Home is where you rest your head, It can be one room, It can be...

Across 2022 and 2023, writer Dr Kim Wiltshire (Edge Hill University) was awarded a British Academy Innovation Fellowship to work with award winning arts and health organisation Lime Arts, based at Manchester University NHS Foundation Trust (MFT) to explore embedding the arts further into NHS settings. Part of her work involved creating what she is terming 'verbatim poems'. For this, Kim worked with renowned musician, composer and sound artist Caro C (@carocsound) and together they interviewed nurses, took the recordings and created 4-5 minute sound pieces. This blog showcases both the written poems and the sound versions, which have been used across MFT for District Nurse recruitment, as well as being used in the 2023 Liverpool Being Human Festival Be My Guest, where the tracks were used by Fusion Dance to create immersive theatre experiences. You can also listen to the podcast ( https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p0fy7702 ) Please keep an eye for more posts as we work with more ...

The Pandemic We lost a lot of patients to Covid, And a lot of our colleagues were off very very poorly With Covid. That was challenging It made us think about life.   A massive influx in patients In that last kind of period of their lives. They were seeing us more than family members, Which was distressing. We had a lot of upset patients, Quite depressed patients, They didn’t see anyone Apart from a nurse in a mask. Looked a bit like an alien coming in No touch, and all that.   They shipped everyone out of hospital And we wasn’t ready for that amount of people To be coming out. Lots of people didn’t want us Because they were scared.   They were really scared. You’re going in giving as much reassurance as you can. In hospital, it’s a clinical situation But then, when you’re sat in your home  With your feet up watching Corrie, And somebody comes in fully gowned? It reminded me of ET, When they come for ET and they’re in the Hazmat suits? It’s scary to have that when th...

  Hello! It’s the District Nurse!   ‘Hello, it’s the district nurse!’   What does it mean to be a district nurse? It means seeing people at home Empowering them Being able to provide the best care It’s anything and everything That you can do for people It’s never boring (laugh) It’s not just a nursing role We work quite independently Doing what needs to be done A district nurse also has to be  A counsellor A therapist A mother All those different kinds of roles Are part of that job.   Palliative care Multitasking Wound care Teamwork Medications Physical Feeding tubes Emotional Taking bloods Caring   ‘Oh my beautiful nurses!’   There was a little lady, lived on her own, had no family, really really nice little lady, and as you get talking, and as the girls said, you get to be part of the family. It was Easter and she used to say how much as a kid she used to love going to the shop and getting an Easter egg, and she’s not been able to do it for fifteen y...

  One Ward, One Day   Today Today Today Today Today Today Today   Today started with having a handover, There was plenty of staff Compared to yesterday. Thereafter, we served breakfast. I began to do my medications, I also assisted the support workers. Personal care, The way you would care for your parents.   Today, quite a few surprising things happened. Everything is kind of unexpected. I got complimented off the matrons for excellent care. My manager has said she would be very happy to be cared for by me. A family member was very grateful of our support. There is always someone who appreciate the little things you make to them. There is always someone who’s smiling at you for no reason, you know. That is why I’m in this profession, I just want to make a difference in the lives of others, Yeah.   Today the hardest part of my day  Was trying to fit in seeing every patient that needed to be seen.  Waiting for linen to come in to be able to get on with ...