Words of comfort: nurse's poetry book helps children visiting hospital

Writing children’s poetry was never critical care nurse Phoebe Coghlan’s intention. “Working in such an intense job, you witness families going through so many emotions – grief, sadness and also joy when someone gets better,” she says. “It’s a lot to take in, so sometimes I’d go home and jot down some nonsense, almost as a coping mechanism to manage the immense pressures and emotions of being a nurse. Soon I was writing poetry. It was never planned and almost happened by mistake.”

Now one of her poems, Visiting Hospital, has been professionally illustrated by Kseniya Shagieva and is available as a book, after first being published by a patient support charity, ICU Steps. It was written to help reassure children seeing loved ones who are very unwell on a ward, and now Great Ormond Street Children’s Hospital, Imperial College Healthcare Trust and Norfolk and Norwich University Hospitals are all using it.

“I wrote it with the intention of gently introducing the hospital environment to children, to make their visit less daunting,” explains Phoebe. The idea came from a senior nurse who asked her to write something to help a family cope with catastrophe when a mother and daughter were both admitted to intensive care after a house fire.

“I remember her other daughter coming to visit and the look of complete shock and trauma on her face,” says Phoebe, who qualified as an adult nurse in 2015 at King’s in London, where she did a postgraduate nursing degree. “I was trying to explain why there were so many tubes and wires. Afterwards, I talked to colleagues about what we could do to support families. It’s so frightening for them.”

She admits it was a difficult poem to write. “It’s partly because it’s so important,” says Phoebe. “I didn’t want to make it too sad, but at the same time it couldn’t be too promising and happy because you don’t know what the outcome will be.”

Feedback from staff has been overwhelmingly positive. “The reaction from my team was incredible,” says Phoebe. “I got a lot of emails from staff members saying it was both touching and informative.” In another instance, a social worker told her it had helped a child whose mother had been admitted to hospital.

“I’m glad children have something they can turn to and I really hope it helps them,” she says. “Even adults can be shocked when they first come into intensive care, as it can be so overwhelming to witness someone you love looking critically unwell. To see things from a child’s point of view, you need to take a step back from what comes so naturally to us as nurses, putting yourself in someone else’s shoes.”

Although Phoebe initially did a history degree, nursing was always on her agenda. “My mum was a nurse and I have a lung condition, so I’ve been in hospital a lot,” she says. After a brief spell in acute medical care, she’s worked in intensive care ever since, taking up a post as a critical care outreach specialist nurse in Norwich last year, alongside working in intensive care at St Mary’s Hospital, London.

She first started writing children’s poetry about five years ago. “There is a huge contrast between the very serious nature of my job and then writing something very silly for four-year-olds,” says Phoebe. “It completely takes your mind off everything and is very therapeutic.”

More than 20 of her poems – including Visiting Hospital – are published on a free website, Storyberries, which provides stories, poems and fairy tales for children. Phoebe has also written three other picture books: Catch a Moon, about chasing your dreams; Ollie the Octopus and Sukey the Spider, about two animal friends; and People who Help, which she wrote during the early stages of the pandemic and features rhymes of appreciation for all the nurses, doctors, paramedics and other key workers.  

“I don’t think I could give up either nursing or writing poetry,” says Phoebe. “I love writing and being imaginative and I love my job, looking after patients, and giving people the best care possible.”