Words alone could never convey the difficulty of discussing sexual activity with a proud or embarrassed client. The subtle signals people display when struggling to broach sexual subjects can't be described succinctly enough to be memorable. Emotional learning demands an emotional medium.

Redhouse Lane wrote and produced seven short dramatic films, one for each of the course's key subject areas. Each drama features a nurse and a client, and climaxes with a moment of truth for the nurse: an unexpected revelation, a demand for a quick decision, or the beginning of a potentially disastrous misunderstanding.

The intention is to incite a visceral reaction from learners: "How on earth am I supposed to respond, if I'm ever in that situation?"

Studying the written course materials then becomes about answering that question, and not about abstract concepts like professional development or knowledge expansion.

To evoke the right reaction, the films had to be utterly believable. We used contacts at St Bartholemew's Hospital to source actors with experience of medical roleplay exercises. We also consulted with the RCN throughout pre-production and shooting to make sure medical jargon, procedures, uniforms and locations were all represented accurately.