Getting a poet's eye view of hospital life: an imaginative collaboration between Wellington Hospital and Victoria University's Graduate School of Nursing and Midwifery has inspired the creation of a unique book of poetry and photographs.

Capturing in poetry special moments between nursing and midwifery staff and their patients was the aim of a "poet in residence" scheme at Wellington Hospital, funded by the Graduate School of Nursing and Midwifery at Victoria University and Creative New Zealand, with support from the university's International Institute of Modern Letters.

The residency, fitted by Nelson poet Rachel Bush and part of the Poets in Workplace initiative of the New Zealand Poetry Society, ran for 24 days over 12 weeks in 2004. The resulting 12 poems, accompanied by 14 photographs by Wellington photographer Alan Knowles, were published and launched last December.

Speaking at the launch of All Patients Report Here, institute director Bill Manhire pointed to the strong connection between poetry and the caring professions, drawing parallels between Bush's collection with the work of Northland GP/poet Glenn Colquhoun and American GP/ poet William Carlos Williams. He congratulated the graduate school for initiating "a very imaginative collaboration", describing the poems as "kind and formidably articulate" and the photographs as "having their own integrity".

"All Patients Report Here is a book of words and images," said Manhire. "The photographs are not just illustrations, they don't fight for attention. They have a steady gaze like the poems themselves. They are Alan Knowles' encounter with the hospital, just as Bush's poems are hers." Speaking to Kai Tiaki New Zealand after the launch, Bush said that getting a poet's eye view of what was going on in the hospital was a quite different undertaking for her. Keeping a diary of what she observed as she visited different areas and wards, and writing down snatches of conversation shared or overheard, were key to the poems' genesis.

At least two of the poems were inspired by her own experiences of getting sick and having to spend some time in the emergency department with an arrhythmic heart condition. Suddenly her rote changed from onlooker to patient, an unexpected introduction to the poet in residence role. Once she had recovered, she began moving about the hospital, spending time in various areas including intensive care, the neonatal unit, and the assessment, treatment and rehabilitation unit--"a good place in which to reassess your life." She also spoke to the chaplains and customers at the coffee kiosk, shared conversation with the barista and the co-ordinator of volunteers, and led a writing and poetry session with some new graduate nurses, encouraging them to reflect on their own experiences. "Writing is such a good way for people to reflect on their Eves and to make sense of what has happened to them," said Bush. The resulting poems, which she wrote in Nelson after the residency ended, are an amalgam of art sorts of experiences. "Senior nursing staff and staff from the graduate school wanted poems that would be affirming of nurses and what they do. Initially this felt a daunting assignment. I needed to get beyond the cliches and dig deeper to discover what nurses realty do and what their role means. I enjoyed talking to nurses and going around with them on occasions. Having a daughter who is a nurse was also a help, as I was able to discuss with her tater, and in greater depth, my experiences and observations.

"I was particularly impressed with the humanity of the nurses in the neonatal intensive care unit. I loved watching them interact with the newborn babies, to observe how knowledgeable they needed to be within this high-tech environment and how complex their interactions with other staff were. I realised just how strong nurses have to be in their roles."

The last poem in the collection, Poet in Residence, describes some of the responses she had from people in the hospital to her own particular role. "Some people were quite bemused by the 'Poet in Residence' name tag I wore. Most were quite positive once I explained what I was doing, but there were some who were critical. After a story in The Dominion Post about the residency, one Wellingtonian wrote a letter to the newspaper questioning the role's validity." Like Bush, Knowles, creator of the controversial Who Cares photographic essay published in Kai Tioki Nursing New Zealand last May, spent a lot of time talking with staff and patients, as welt as time simply observing. His photographs, he said, record his reaction, not just to the poems, but to the institution as a whore, "in all its overwhelming and daunting complexity".

Bush herself is thrilled with the book and pleased with the poems, as well as with the five framed and enlarged photos and poems that have been donated to the hospital. "Having that residency enabled those poems to be created. They could never have been written otherwise."

All Patients Report Here can be ordered from Wai-te-ata Press, PO Box 600, Wellington. The cost is $29.95, plus $5 for postage and handling.

Admission

On the first fine day in a week they said We will need to admit you. You said to the nurse it was silly but you were scared and she said Well it wasn't silly, only natural. but they were here for you. You remembered the unhung washing. You'd been pleased it was a good drying day also the soft black plastic container of lettuce you wanted to plant. You'd wanted to look for a summer top and clean the kitchen windows. The sob cloths for cleaning were folded and sat still in a yellow bag in the laundry. The window cleaner stood on a shelf with other cleaners. Such small intentions, nothing much but they had fallen like beads in a broken necklace and you had no power to pick them up. We're here for you said the nurse. She smiled and picked up the beads. She put them in a plastic bag for later.

Rachel Bush