A nurse on ward 8 at HRI has written about dementia care and won a place in a poetry book commemorating the 70th birthday of the NHS.

Jane Wilson's words are all about the human experience behind the condition in the book called Body and Soul.(£8 plus p&p)

She was a nurse cadet in 1974 and has been on Ward 7 and 8  (and soon to be ward 6) caring for elderly patients, many with dementia, since 2000.

She says: " The care we have here is excellent. It is so 1:1 which it needs to be and that is why it is so complex.

"We have a purpose-built ward which includes a day room for people with memory problems and memory books. The care has to be individually tailored to our patients."

She said seeing our patients improve through engagement was a terrific experience.

She added: " When our patients first arrive they can be so disorientated as they are away from their home. Then they get to know us and where things are and when you know what they like and respond to then you start to see their memory improving."

Jane hopes to retire soon to become an artist in residence at the Lawrence Batley Theatre in Huddersfield. The poems in the books were judged by Wendy Cope who was once nominated for Poet Laureate.

Here's Jane's  moving poem called Almost You.

You still sit with style

leg crossed, ankle flexed, footpointed.

Silver hair swept up, chic... almost

Faded beauty lies softly beneath lined & wrinkled skin.

"More tea?" you ask... again.

I smile & decline... again,

with another breezy, no,

sounding as it it's the first... almost.

The the ritual.

Photo passed to outstretched hand,

like a key in a loock,

with one turn the memopry ignites.

"I'm eighteen... almost"

Past & present collide for one magical moment.

Then, like falling leaves, 

memories quiely drift away.

True beauty lies softly beneath

lined and wrinkled paper.

A glimpse of you... almost.