All those damned credential abbreviations again, and I have to go off and invent a new one. Sheesh. But hey, it applies to me. I'm the aged nurse, heading back into the ICU, following a few years of retirement. So, for all of you like me, RN = Reincarnated Nurse!

Reincarnated Nurse

I'm just an aged RN returning
To the original scene of the crime,
The question that everyone's asking
How many years has it been, since his prime,
While the average age of a nurse
In California, is just forty-seven,
30% of us, clock over 50
You might say, we’re just closer to heaven.

But I suppose, we can’t take all for granted
When you pluck an old nurse from the crypt,
You’ll want to check the degree of senility
And how many discs have been slipped,
Are any critical devices required
For the operation of their bodily functions,
What are the odds, in the midst of their job
You’ll be required to perform extreme unction?

He has twenty long years, in critical-care
How much he retained is unknown,
You can’t train an old dog; can you train an old nurse?
Perhaps his brain has been turned into stone,
But this vacant position, has been unfilled forever
Our list of applicants amounted to two,
No young-nurses applied, perhaps they all died
When they learned how much work they would do.

Perhaps an old nurse, is better than none
All the tricks of the trade have been learned,
He may have lost a little speed, after 4000 shifts
His aches and his pains duly earned,
His competitive spirit, still fires his efforts
His good deeds have no need to be overstated,
A legend in his own time, if you ask those who know
An experienced nurse, reincarnated.

Fibril_late;
1/19/08