Hospital Nurse

A glamorous young student nurse charms patients and staff alike as she sails through her training.

A glamorous young student nurse, in her pristine uniform and neat cap, charms patients and staff alike as she sails through her three-year training programme. This recruitment film presents an idealised view of the nursing profession, which is likely to have been in stark contrast with the daily experience of wartime nurses.

There were difficulties in recruiting nurses during WWII, and it appears that films such as this one were unsuccessful in their efforts to fill the gap. Women were less willing to become nurses than they had been during WWI since by the 1940s a range of new employment options had become open to them. This government film is a public record, preserved and presented by the BFI National Archive on behalf of The National Archives, home to more than 1,000 years of British history.