Holiday Poem
Clement Moore Meets Catherine Filene Shouse
by Judith Webb '10 DNP Student
MGH Institute of Health Professions
December 2009
'Twas three weeks before Christmas and all through the Shouse
The fingers were flying on pads of the mouse
We'd come from Connecticut, and Natick, and Braintree
We even live where the team hat says "Yankee"
We had our BSes, our Masters Degrees
But onward and upward, we'd need DNPs
We used to hold office and coach Little League
And now we discuss, and debate, and critique
We used to read novels, attend PTA
But now we are expert at new APA
We cut down on cooking, we ate out a lot
We don't see our families, our friends--we forgot!
We came seeking inquiry and ultimate knowledge
Perhaps we had missed this our last trip through college
We read theories by nurses, ideas from way back
With terms that were lucid and polysyllabic
We came here with questions and wanted to learn
We tweaked and revised until those queries burned
Why simply explain when we could explicate
Why keep things simple? Let's go! Complicate!
On RefWorks and Courseware and D2 and L
On Ovid and Endnotes and CINAHL as well.
After all, we'll be the ones with the Ds
Not on our transcripts, but in our degrees!
Our scholarly papers and projects completed
The tasks on our lists have now all been deleted
And now with our capstones quite nicely ignited
We must confess feeling a wee bit excited
But before we return to our hometowns today
There's one more thing we wanted to say
Thanks to our teachers, our classmates and friends
We'll see you again when our holiday ends
Read something frivolous, go play with the dog
Another semester awaits us, with more dialogue
Before snow begins falling and Boston turns white
Happy holidays to all, good grades, and good night.
Judith Webb '10 is in the post-MS DNP program
DNP students relax with professor Tony Guarino (center).
Students left to right: Winnie Hsu, Sylvie Djousse, Cathy Ricciardi, Julie Burns, Mary Mullany, Judith Webb, Teri Stone Godina
Posted with permission from the author, Judith Webb '10