A 25-year-old nurse from Ceredigion is one of the stars of a new five-part BBC Three docu-series following the lives of young, newly-qualified nurses working on the NHS front line. Leah Kitson-James, from Ceredigion, currently works at Bronglais Hospital in Aberystwyth and says her decision to train as a nurse was inspired by her own health battle.
“I’ve got a lot of history of being in and out of hospital,” she told WalesOnline following the series' release. “I’m currently waiting for a full hip replacement now due to ongoing problems from a young age - I’ve had four hip operations already. I always thought that the nurses were so lovely and that I’d love to become one, one day.
“When I was in sixth form I applied to go into nursing but I withdrew because I didn’t think that I’d be capable of becoming a nurse. I went to do another degree in sports coaching and nutrition with the intention of being a PE teacher but deep down, I knew I wanted to be a nurse! When I applied again, I got in.”
Leah now works on the orthopaedic, trauma and surgical ward of the hospital. Describing her workplace she said: “It’s quite an intense, busy ward because you never know what’s coming through the doors. We can have some acutely ill patients and there’s such a variety."
The BBC Three series, aptly-named Rookie Nurses, was filmed in autumn, 2022 and Leah said that the opportunity for her to take part first came about only three months after she started working at the hospital. “I’d only been qualified for three months so I had a lot of pressure on my shoulders anyway. The transition to being in your purple scrubs, where you have supervision all the time, to being in your blues, where you are on your own, was a shock! It was quite difficult at the start with all of the cameras because it just didn’t feel normal. After a few days of filming I just carried on."
“An email was sent out through Hywel Dda [University Health Board] and it was just asking people whether they wanted to be a part of this programme," she added. "As a joke I said to my manager, ‘Shall I apply?’ and she told me to do it. There were questions asking why you went into nursing and I just filled it all out. When they gave me a phone call I thought they were joking.”
Leah described herself as a “really sociable person who loves helping people”. Discussing the ward in which she works, she added: “We see so many people come in but we also see so many people go home, as well. You go through stages with people - probably the most traumatic time they’ve ever had in their lives - and we’re part of that. I love seeing people going home with a smile on their faces. Obviously that doesn’t always happen.”
She highlighted how the majority of the patients she sees in hospital are in there for a long period of time. “I probably get too attached,” Leah admitted. “You get to know their families and you get to know them really well. When something bad does happen, for instance when someone passes away, it’s really horrible. That’s just the person that I am.”
A Welsh-speaker, in the series Leah can be seen comforting patients by communicating in the language. “Aberystwyth has a strong Welsh community. Once you know someone speaks Welsh and they know you speak Welsh, it makes them feel so much more at home. It’s a really nice benefit to the care that I’m giving. A lot of the elderly people I care for can’t really understand English very well. I sometimes relay information back to them that the doctors have given. This is so important as we are an advocate for our patients.”
Speaking of the response to Rookie Nurses, she said: “My family and friends are really proud of me. I didn’t really think much of it but watching back the series, I’m pretty proud of myself and I would never normally say that because I’m usually quite hard on myself. My sister, my mum, my dad and my boyfriend’s family can now understand why I come home some days and go, ‘What a day!’ They can actually see what goes on and they’re quite overwhelmed by it as well.
“It’s quite nice for my close family and friends to see what happens because I do come home from work somedays mentally and physically drained. Now they have more of an understanding of what I’m going through every day - and no day is ever the same.”
Leah shared how there has also been an amazing response to Rookie Nurses in the hospital itself. “I feel a little bit of a superstar in Bronglais at the moment,” she said of her newfound fame. “I went down to X-Ray the other day and someone said, ‘Ooh here she is’ and I replied, ‘I don’t even know you but hello!’"
Rookie Nurses is available to watch on BBC iPlayer. The series continues on BBC Three at 9pm on Wednesday, May 24.
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