I shadowed A&E nurses – and saw their heroism firsthand | Letter

Maureen Beattie reflects on her research for an acting role on BBC’s Casualty

Re your article about Late Shift, the healthcare “disaster movie” about an overworked nurse pushed to her limits (The shocking hit film about overworked nurses that’s causing alarm across Europe, 29 July), many years ago, I was researching for my role as a nurse in the BBC series Casualty and was given the opportunity to shadow two shifts at Bristol Royal Infirmary A&E department in order to watch the nurses at work.

In every single case I witnessed, the patient was assessed and diagnosed, and the correct treatment decided upon by the nurses, who then had to wait for a doctor to agree their findings before any treatment could be given. I watched young doctors straight out of university being steered away from wrong decisions and pointed in the right direction by these nurses again and again.