The Peninsula Nurses

The Ards peninsula is one of the most beautiful regions of Northern Ireland. It's a traditional Ulster-Scots heartland rich in heritage, culture and language, where generations of families have deep-rooted links to land and sea.

In this series, we follow a small team of district and community nurses caring for local people all over the peninsula, enabling them to stay at home, in familiar surroundings, with friends and family nearby. For many of their patients, the comfort and company the nurses provide is as important as the medical care they offer, and the trusted relationships they build are invaluable.

Portaferry patient Kirsty is undergoing chemotherapy. To reduce the number of hospital trips, and minimise the risk of infection, nurse Tanya comes to Kirsty's home to take blood samples and check on her well-being.

Meanwhile nurse Gemma is keeping a watchful eye on Rea, an elderly patient who lives with his wife Ruth in a residential home with stunning coastal views. Ruth has dementia while Rea has diabetes, and Gemma's company and companionship are a great tonic.

Nurse Lisa enjoys a day off with a trip to a farm shop in Kircubbin. The shop was set up by farmer Davy Kerr during lockdown to ensure the local community had easy access to fresh fruit and vegetables, and has become a popular meeting spot and a place where Ulster-Scots is widely spoken by many of the customers. Davy's late mother was a community nurse, giving him a genuine appreciation of the work done by Lisa and her colleagues.

Lisa explains that palliative care is an important part of community nursing and that it can take years to build up relationships with patients who will eventually need this specialist type of nursing care.

Tanya is in Portaferry for an early morning call with TC, an elderly resident who is a popular figure in the local community. Jenny has been invited to talk to the P1 class at Portavogie Primary School about her work as a district nurse. Meanwhile, Gemma is on a mission to make sure that Donaghadee woman Phyllis is well enough to attend the forthcoming wedding of her best friend Doris's daughter.