Perspective of Nursing Care from Past to Future by Matron Marley

By Margaret Heale, RN, MSc, CWOCN

It's Matron Marley here again. I do hope you had a good Thanksgiving folks. My daughter ordered Chinese and her offspring were thrilled. I snuck away to the nursing home where I volunteer and had nut roast with the residents (who had turkey, of course). The Holiday season being upon us made me change perspective for my note to you. The activity board is full of arts, crafts and Christmas cheer, but no call for midnight carols from the nursing home staff. I told them how in my earlier days at the hospital as a matron, we would gather at midnight with lamps, cloaks turned, so the red lining was outward and festive. Starting with the pediatric ward we would sing Christmas carols as we walked through from ward to ward. They were Nightingale wards mostly and rather spread out. It took a while to pass through all ten rooms. Ending at around midnight in my dining room (Matron's dining room was where the sisters and senior nurses hung out for breaks and meals), we would finish carol singing by drinking hot chocolate and eating mince pies or Bourbon biscuits (a finger like chocolate cookie, fathomly different from an Oreo). My mind continued to reminisce and so I wrote you this:

A Matron's Christmas Carol
Well let's see, Christmas past, a dream it seems at last a time to shine
Forth we went dressed in our stripes, cloaks turned to red outside in.
We started with the kids, lots of chocolate, pies and frills.
A carol sung beneath a tree, good tidings of great joy for thee.
Soon I will see the drunks piled high, topped with helmetless riders, bye!
But for now I sing a 'Joyful Song', hoping it will last for long.

Next we have, Christmas present, too many there are but some have so few
In our troupe, no cloaks to turn, still red to scoop and to mourn.
Aromatic tree gives way to Yankee Candle and noisy repetitive jiggling Santa.
The surgical ward has no fear for Matron cometh, I shed a tear.
No one to check the place is neat, just QA from computer speak.
What mountains are we creating, with the core measures we are taking.

Into the future we must slide, let's hope it is there and not just ahead.
Where we will - like lemmings fly - ourselves into eternity.
Crosses will join hands and merge without the need for plastic toys.
As I watch my granddaughter text, I wonder truly what is next.
We must give attention we need to say, watch and listen or we will pay.
The ghost of Marley yet to come, I wonder if Obama won.

About The Author
Based on her extensive nursing experience Margaret Heale, Wound, Ostomy and Continence Nurse, takes us into the blog journal of a fictitious matron, "Perspective of Nursing Care from Past to Future by Matron Marley."

The views and opinions expressed in this blog are solely those of the author, and do not represent the views of WoundSource, Kestrel Health Information, Inc., its affiliates, or subsidiary companies.