BBC One Daytime commissions Saving our Nurses

Even before the current crisis the NHS was facing the biggest challenge to healthcare since wartime, with over a third of nurses looking for new roles. To fight back against this nursing crisis, one NHS trust has come up with a unique scheme that helps guide new nurses so that they don’t leave the profession. In Saving Our Nurses cameras follow the scheme’s elite team of experienced nurses in the crucial weeks before coronavirus hit our shores and engulfed the NHS.

The scheme from Barking, Havering and Redbridge University Hospitals NHS Trust, which runs Queen’s and King George Hospitals, offers a unique solution - a trailblazing Senior Intern Scheme that pairs up new recruits with staff who have a lifetime of experience and the ability to navigate even the most unprecedented of medical circumstances.

The aim is to support the newbies through their first and toughest year on the wards and secure their skills and care for the long haul. Now more than ever, this hero squad of super-nurses are setting out to ensure the next generation isn't overwhelmed by the tough and extreme realities of hospital life.

In the days before we applauded them in the streets, could this revolutionary new scheme give the much-needed support to help to save our nurses and help save the lives of the most vulnerable?

Saving Our Nurses is made by Betty/OMG North and was commissioned for BBC One by Carla-Maria Lawson, the Commissioning Editor for BBC Daytime is Lindsay Bradbury. The Executive Producers for Betty/OMG are Pam Cavannagh, Dympna Jackson and Alex Menzies. The Series Producer is Steve McConville.