Susan is reserved and rather naive; Pat is older and rather cynical; Maureen is Irish; Ann is a former public school girl; and Liz comes from a working class background.

She is tempted to leave nursing to go with Jim to Canada despite his reluctance, and manages to persuade him, but after helping a patient who tried to commit suicide, she then decides not to go.

When it emerges that Pat stayed out all night with one of the doctors, she faces instant dismissal, until she reveals that she has been married for a month.

The film was based on the 1950 book The Lamp is Heavy by Canadian Sheila Russell, who worked as a nurse in Edmonton, Alberta[2] and married a doctor in 1947.

[6] It was the first Ealing movie directed by Pat Jackson, who had made an earlier film about nursing, White Corridors (1951).

[17] David Quinlan wrote "Episodic tribute to nursing profession has too much soft soap, not enough meat.