Our trailblazing Senior Intern scheme is the subject of an exciting new BBC documentary series – ‘Saving our Nurses’. The first episode will be shown on BBC One at 10am on Monday 8 June, with the series examining the success of our initiative to support newly qualified nurses.

Senior interns are experienced nurses with a wealth of knowledge to support newly recruited nurses navigate the challenges of hospital life when they are new to the role. Currently over a third of nurses nationally are looking for a new role, so the team’s goal is to keep nurses in the NHS at what can be a difficult point in their career.

Our Senior Intern team’s efforts so far have slashed the number of nurses leaving our Trust. The team has even been recognised nationally with a Nursing Times award. You can watch them in action in the five episodes, produced by betty and Objective Media North, filmed in the weeks leading up to the outbreak of Covid-19.

Kathryn Halford, our Chief Nurse and Deputy Chief Executive, who came up with the idea for the scheme after watching Robert De Niro film ‘The Intern’, said: “We are so proud of our Senior Intern team and their work to support our new nurses, so we’re hugely excited that everyone else will now get to see them in action.

“I remember my early days on the wards as a newly qualified nurse, it can be daunting and I would have felt very lucky if I’d had the support of a team like this back then.”

In the film, De Niro stars as someone who returns to work after retiring and is able to share the benefit of is wisdom and experience with a younger colleague.

Pictured are the Senior Intern team.