Author Archives: @NicolaP

(Written in response to the news of the alleged Downing Street Christmas Party of 2020- some readers may find this distressing. Reposting owing to the reluctance of Boris and the now government to publish whatsApp and text messages during this time.) This piece was Shortlisted for the Yeovil Writing Without Restrictions Prize 2022. …. DearContinue reading “Dear Boris, I lied too.”

This is a poem I wrote early last year. Since writing it we have had a diagnosis of ASD and ADHD. My life as a mother has forever changed. My whole approach to how I communicate with my child has had to evolve and be adapted. We’re getting there, and things are calmer. I spentContinue reading “I’m bruised and I’m battered”

Those Thursday night claps are silent and long forgotten, the hand-painted rainbows colourless and faded. Our Covid ‘heroism’ seems to have been erased from history. Us nurses are about to get vilified by our government, our press, we will be called greedy, uncaring, selfish. We are about to become the victims of a campaign toContinue reading “One big heart: (if you were in a nurse’s shoes what would you do?)”

We will strike for every time we left our shifts late For every patient who has endured a too long a wait For every shift we could not safely fill For every time the pressure of our working day made us feel ill For every time we missed our lunch or coffee break For everyContinue reading “We Will Strike”

May 2020 (Short listed for the Yeovil Literary Writing Without Restrictions Prize 2021) My colleagues and I hadn’t taken it seriously, we were almost a little cocky, ‘Yeah. Yeah, we’ve seen H1N1, we’ve seen SARS, we’ve nursed in pandemics before’ So we carried on, until very quickly our office became an incident command center, execsContinue reading “Behind Closed Doors: A Nursing Memoir”

Love letter to my Lido. I didn’t pay you much attention at first. I knew you were in walking distance of my house but with babes in buggies and the UK climate I never really explored what you had to offer. But then, lockdown, covid, months of being either in doors or behind a maskContinue reading “A love letter to my Lido”

We all have our first times.. Our first cardiac arrest, our first catheter, our first tears. Written in April 2022. A Close Shave I remember the first man I shaved. He was my friend; I was 22 years old. I stood in the bathroom of his student house, razor at the ready.                ‘This isContinue reading “The First Time”

(This is part of a longer piece in the collection of my memoir A Wall of Hearts. It is a very raw, emotive and personal piece of writing that at first I was reluctant to share. However I can imagine many other parent’s have felt/feel the same). Tiny Hands and Tiny Feet. My son isContinue reading “To Mother and to Nurse”

(A tribute to a woman I never knew: I have wanted to write this to her for a long time. I often think of her still – written Jan 2022) In April 2020 the world was hiding behind closed doors. The roads were empty, school playgrounds and parks deserted and silent. A fear had engulfedContinue reading “A tribute to a woman I never knew.”

So Boris hosted a lockdown party. Another violation of the rules. The rules he and his government made to keep us safe, to keep the NHS fires burning, the same rules that they then very much disregarded and broke. I think back to May 2020. Home schooling. Lockdown. The loneliness of not seeing friends andContinue reading “In May 2020….”