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Newly qualified nurse Victoria, who is in her first year of working at Daisy Hill Hospital, looks after patients who have suffered a stroke. Victoria reflects on what inspired her to become a nurse – looking after her granny who got diagnosed with dementia at an early stage of her life.

At the Ulster Hospital Emergency Department, we meet Simon, an advanced nurse practitioner (ANP), who has been working for the NHS for over 23 years. Due to the lack of beds, a patient has to wait in
an ambulance for two hours before being admitted. Simon tells us about the pressures on waiting times and space that all hospital emergency departments are facing across Northern Ireland.

At Craigavon Area Hospital, the unpredictability of the psychiatric intensive care unit (PICU) is keeping Conor and his colleagues on their toes. The alarm goes off in the secure unit, and all staff run to see
what’s going on. Luckily, on this occasion, it was a false alarm, but other days can bring extreme challenges in a PICU environment.