Netflix’s Danish thriller The Nurse tells a tragic story that we know too well.
In the new series, nurse Pernille Kurzmann lands her first job straight out of nursing school at the Nykøbing Falster Hospital in Denmark, where she befriends nurse Christina Aistrup Hansen. Hansen is a popular and well-liked nurse at the hospital they work at, until Kurzmann begins to notice patients dying under her care.
Director Kasper Barfoed told Netflix’s Tudum that he wasn’t trying to make a series about a “‘crazy’ killer,” instead he wanted to focus on the system that made this possible.
What ensues is a thrilling and unique take on a serial killer tale we’ve seen iterated in other hospital dramas, such as The Good Nurse. But is The Nurse based on a true story?
Kurzmann’s story is, unfortunately, a true one.
The miniseries closely follows The Nurse: Inside Denmark’s Most Sensational Criminal Trial, a book by Kristian Corfixen that chronicles Hansen’s crimes.
Though she was well-liked held in high esteem at the hospital, Hansen was secretly administering lethal doses of morphine and diazepam to her patients while working night shifts. She would then rush to save them, though she wasn’t always successful. Kurzmann was the first one to raise her concerns about the nurse, though others later came forward and said they had similar suspicions.
“There’s a trust [among Danes] more so than in the rest of the world. We’re inclined to trust that the system wants the best for us,” Barfoed says. “We’re vulnerable when things like this happen. Nobody wants to be the one to ruin the good mood.”
Hansen was convicted on four counts of attempted murder and sentenced to 12 years in prison in 2017. She also lost her nursing license.
“So many people suspected something or saw something — and yet it’s the new nurse, the one who’s in her first job who not only senses something is wrong, but who actually does something about it and risks everything,” Barfoed said.
“[Making the series] became a lot about trying to be loyal to Pernille and the situation she was in. We wanted the audience to be able to feel how difficult this is,” he said.
Kurzmann still works at the hospital, where she lives a private life. Hansen, on the other hand, is still in prison where she will be completing her sentence until 2028.