Zu jeder Zeit

Saw this at IDFA, the International Documentary Festival 2018 in Amsterdam. We got a good insight in what is involved in such a training, eventually leading to proficient nurses. It is not something to take lightly, especially when seeing the overload of topics and activities compressed in the one and a half hour running timeof this movie. We see soo many things they have to learn, overwhelming even, at least for us watching it from our comfy chairs. On the other hand, they have the time to absorb it, spreading over several years. It may not be so tough after all, at least for the purely practical matters that can be rehearsed at length.

We also saw scenes where real patients were treated by these apprentice nurses, of course under supervision, but anyway. The patients knew that the nurse did it for the first time. It can be extra stressfull nevertheless, generating more tension than may be necessary, and it may not be good for the patient either. It all happens very close to the camera, and probably with a lot of other filming staff (sound, lighting etc), bound to be extra burdensome for the nurse and for the patient too.

The final scenes, in my opinion the most memorable part of the movie, showed interviews about past internships of a variety of students. These were heavy and intensive, even showing tears some of the time, with moments where all sorts of problems came about. Among others: It could be a hospital department in transit, or a head nurse who had too much to do so no time to supervise or evaluate, or they felt problems having insufficient interaction with the patients, and so on. Of course, this are inherent parts of the future job as well. It goes beyond their practical capabilities learnt at school in the three preceding years.

All in all, we clearly get to see that a job as a nurse is complicated for a multitude of reasons. In this respect, the movie does a good job and shows all intricacies from close by. The final chapter of the movie that covered the internships, wrapped it all up. It even did more than that, while demonstrating the non-practical (soft) elements of the job that prove as important as the day-to-day routines they learn at school. As a takeaway, this movie makes us aware that doctors may get all the glamour and the higher paychecks, and that the nurses may seem less visible yet cannot be missed to smoothly run a hospital and allowing patients to leave the hospital in a better shape than when entering the institution.