Screenwriter and director Petra Volpe’s day-in-the-life narrative makes her film “Late Shift” feel intimate to audiences. It follows nurse Floria “Flo” Lind (Leonie Benesch) through her late shift in a Swiss hospital where nursing resources are stretched tighter and thinner than a surgical glove.
Flo’s shift runs the gamut of routines, from the nursing station to patient rooms, and from labs to operating rooms. She sanitizes her hands at every turn and injects painkillers. She checks temperatures, blood pressure, and blood-sugar. She changes catheters, adult diapers, and drip bags. She comforts terminally ill patients, wheeling others in and out of surgery. She reassures patients in pain, as well as families who are impatient to hear about their loved ones’ diagnosis or treatment.
