Unit Nurses provide first aid cover and primary healthcare to the cast and crew on a film production.  This includes ensuring that people are looking after their own health, and dealing with first aid incidents and general healthcare. Typical assignments last as long as ten weeks, involving twelve hour days and sometimes six day weeks.  Filming can often be monotonous and repetitive, with sometimes only a few minor ailments to treat each day.

Unit Nurses cannot expect full-time employment opportunities.  However, certain skilled Nurses, who built up a good reputation within the industry, are often personally requested by clients, and find themselves in almost continuous employment, moving from one film production to another. Work is often offered at very short notice.  Most Unit Nurses enter the film industry because they have an interest in the media.  They contact film companies directly, or join one of the new specialist nursing agencies.

Responsibilities
The Unit Nurse's key responsibility is to provide first aid and primary healthcare.  Those with extra skills, e.g., occupational health skills, may be able to provide specialist care and advice in this area.  Unit Nurses may also be asked to comment or advise on health-related scenes in a film, in order to ensure that they are accurate, or to make them more realistic

Skills
Unit Nurses must be confident and outgoing, with excellent communication skills. The role demands reliability, self-motivation, endless enthusiasm, and ultimately a genuine interest in the well-being of clients. It also requires adaptability and the capability to work in relative isolation as a healthcare professional, sometimes in remote areas without direct professional support.  Nurses must have the experience and confidence to diagnose, treat on-site, or refer patients without direct supervision.

Qualifications/Experience
All Unit Nurses must be qualified general nurses usually with at least five years' post qualification experience in healthcare.  Ideally they should be experienced in Accident and Emergency medicine, or in pre-hospital care, and be confident in providing first aid outside a hospital environment.  They must have a full driving licence, and their own transport.

Individual course accreditation in certain subject areas is currently being piloted. As part of Skillset's and the UK Film Council's Film Skills Strategy, A Bigger Future, a network of Screen Academies and a Film Business Academy have been approved as centres of excellence in education and training for film.

Where to go for more information
Skillset has worked with film and television industries to create the Health and Safety Framework, an agreement across sectors about which qualifications or training courses are needed for priority production roles. Find out more about the Health and Safety Framework here.

The first sources of information for all jobs in the industry are the National Occupational Standards. Browse Skillset's website for links to our network of training partners, information about training and access to the comprehensive Skillset/BFI course database. Finally, Skillset Careers is UK's only specialist media careers advice service; for detailed media careers information and advice, visit www.skillset.org/careers.