CHALLENGE

NHS neonatal intensive is something of a small and poor relation in the battle for resources within the NHS. 1 in 13 children born need Neonatal ICU care and it takes around 10 members of a team to care for one neonate (consultant, doctor, nurse, therapists, etc). 

 Yet the service battles against adult services who take a lion’s share of everything resource based. Couple this with the tension of the NHS struggling to find nurses generally, and this department suffers to find talent. 

 We were challenged to help with developing a recruitment campaign, targeting young people looking at a nursing career and existing trained nurses who may be interested to cross-train. With an idea and set of assets that could stand out in Sky AdSmart, social media and the NHS internal network, and crucially help find the right candidates – people who would be motivated by working in this challenging job.

CHANGING THE FUTURE FAST 

Many nurses place a cachet on working in the most intensive environments early in their career. 

Our idea of ‘could you’ draws attention to the fact that neonatal intensive care nurses need wide-ranging skills to deliver in an intense environment. We wanted to blow away any perception that this career path is about cuddling cute babies with hard-hitting facts of the job’s reality - so we attracted the best of the best. We showed through a series of authentic, vivid black and white stills, donated by parents, that this is a lifesaving department that cares for babies in the delicate first moments of their lives. 

Every day the nurses are making life-or-death decisions about tiny human beings. Lennie James’s voice tells this truth with a truly inspiring & motivating narrative that challenges viewers with the big question ‘could you?’ 

We produced a 90’’ film, social posts and posters for NHS trusts to utilise nationally.

Psych for Change 

The team immersed themselves in the neonatal wards, meeting parents and talking to the nurses to get a crucial insight into the reality of the job. Then through a series of meetings we built the narrative of the film with the nurses, drawing on their lived experiences of caring for the little patients.