enough by Yvette Perry, Listener Poet — The Good Listening Project

Origin Story

This nurse was considering leaving a position where she spent many years due to issues she experienced and witnessed at her hospital. Even though she worked there and was known to the healthcare providers, she experienced repeated incidents of disrespect and substandard care at the hands of her colleagues. Worse, she had experienced similar treatment with her own children and mother when they tried to receive care at her facility. “This is not a happy place,” she said of her workplace.

She expressed surprise that there were not more cases of care going wrong—but then upon further reflection stated that things probably went wrong more often than patients are willing to report. Stating that this was especially the case in situations where race was an issue, she observed that her workplace claimed to embrace multiculturalism, but that not everyone was invited into the culture of the institution.

She recognized that even though she had been in this environment for a long time, she had finally reached the limit of what she was willing to endure. She knew that she wanted to work in an environment characterized by support, encouragement, appreciation, politeness, and respect. In her home life that she shared with her husband, children and pets she was happy. “I need that kind of happiness in other areas of my life, too.”

Yvette Perry, Listener Poet
Institute for Healthcare Improvement Forum
January 2024
Presented at the National Council on Family Relations Annual Conference 2025

enough

By Yvette Perry, Listener Poet

they’ve ignored him
belittled him, dismissed him
and now when his yells
reverberate up and
down these halls,
they call him non-
compliant and dangerous

I know
because the same thing
has happened here
to me, to mine even though I
work in this place
and I am at my limit

if this were a spouse or
ex-partner, this toxic
treatment would be called
abuse–and rightfully so
it’s no less abusive just
because it’s a hospital
(just because it’s my hospital)

I have
taken this for 15 years
too long, so long I’m
programmed to
call it normal
but now I am at my limit

they’ve clothed me in
gray scrubs made
of their offensiveness
and yet, to them, I’m naked
this place is
gray and soul-less
and yet, to them, it’s fine

I deserve
more joy, more support
more respect than
this place is willing to give
and this is enough–
I am at my limit

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enough

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