Production
Nurse TV is filmed with high production standards. Mostly we shoot the
show on Digital Betacam, the industry standard format for high-quality television.
The
production filming and style is kept simple to minimise inconvenience
to patients and staff. Our ability to film a story without disrupting a
unit has made it possible to gain access to many areas that would
otherwise refuse. The story is the
most important thing and we are willing to concede picture quality to get it if we need to.
We
value and respect patient confidentiality and aim to convey the
reality and substance of the nursing profession. Nurse TV does not sensationalise human drama or use patients when they are
feeling vulnerable. We have held back from filming people on many occasions
because we felt it to be morally wrong and reprehensible to intrude at
a time when they are so vulnerable.
Our cameras have been
where others would be denied. Because of Nurse TV’s outstanding
reputation in being able to honour patients' dignity and
confidentiality, we have been able to take our cameras into the most
sensitive of areas including intensive care, mental health and most of
all aged care. We have gained respect from the nursing profession by
maintaining the highest and most ethical shooting paradigm. We have, in
the past, not broadcast episodes because of concerns with consent; we
have deleted scenes at requests of nurses and patients and used
block-out on the faces of any patients who have been unable to consent.
We do this sometimes for legal reasons - but often because it is simply the right thing to
do.
Each seven minute segment of Nurse TV usually takes two to three hours to film. This extremely short shooting time is partially the
result of a very tight budget, but mostly due to the limited amount of
time nurses and their departments can afford to give us. We are very
aware of the repercussions of taking a nurse off the ward for two hours
while we film our story.
So we are very grateful to all the
DONs, NUMs, and hospital PR departments across Australia who have seen
the value of what we are doing and made it possible. Click here to see all the places Nurse TV has filmed at.
Producing
Nurse TV is a gargantuan task. Each segment requires dozens of emails
and phone calls to establish what the nurse’s role is and to determine
the nature of the story, to negotiate filming times, and to address any
concerns that the nurse may have. The budget simply does not allow for
pre-production meetings so we do not meet the nurses who feature in
Nurse TV until the day of filming. Often we know nothing about them
except that they are wiling to be filmed. We simply have to hope that
these nurses will be articulate on camera. We have been very lucky in
this so far and have never been unable to use a story.
Each
series of Nurse TV (13 episodes) takes a year to produce. Most of the
work is in raising the budget and organising the stories. Once we have
the budget in place we begin sourcing story ideas. We get a great deal
of inspiration from The Australian Nursing Journal.
