What do nurses in hospitals do exactly, and what do you have to know to be one?

They basically take care of you while you’re in hospital. And I’m guessing you have to go to Uni and learn about medicine, illnesses, treatments, health care etc.

They acutely do a lot more than people think. They take care of sick people, help the doctor out, give ivs/shots, answer phone calls, check ur blood pressure, pluse and tons more stuff. But they also have to fill out paper work and different stuff. There is more to being a nurse then what we see. I know this because my mom is a nurse and is always taking about doing paper work and things. However I’m not sure what u need to know to be one.

nurses do alot. I think of them as doctors’s assistant. they take care of the patients, give them their meds and shots on time take their blood pressure etc stuff that doctors don’t do because if the did they wouldn’t have time to do major stuff like surgery.

Now to be a nurse, u gotta go to a nursing school i think it takes three years or so plus the extra time u volunteer at hospital (not sure).. i have like three sisters who r either studying to be or is a nurse. but i’m not in contact with them that’s why i’m not sure exactly how long it takes to be one. hope this helped:)

it depends on what kind of nurse you are going for..some can take 2 yrs but most take 4 trs plus…now a CNA only takes a small course which could be just a few months, then u take a test to get ur CNA licenses..but thats more like nursing home stuff…i know this because i studied nothing but medical my entire high school and went to college for radiology..but we also had to know alot about other job titles in the medical fienld in some of our classes…

They’re kind of the equivalent of the lady at the dentist who shows you your room, gives you flouride and brushes your teeth before the dentist comes in. A nurse has pretty much the same sort of education - like in an emergency she (or he) could perform a surgery. However a doctor goes to medical school while a nurse goes to nursing school. The nurse takes care of you, brings you meals, takes your blood pressure etc. But the doctor is the one who diagnoses things. Both careers requires years of study, and in my opinion doctors get a lot of crap from people who think they’re rich snobs. =)

A lot of the mundane tasks people are mentioning are now mostly done by medical techs who receive some training but are not licensed like nurses. There are levels within nursing. The lowest level is a Licensed Practical Nurse or LPN; this requires 9-18 months of training and then pass a state licensing exam. The next level is Registered Nurse or RN. RN’s have a college degree and take a more rigorous licensing exam. Some RN programs are Associates Degree (2 year) while others are Bachelor degree (4 year). The trend is toward Bachelors and many hospitals now require a Bachelor of Science Nursing degree. Registered Nurses who also pass an extra exam for a medical specialty are referred to as Certified Registered Nurses; for certain specialties like Anesthesia CRNs are in demand. Above that are Nurse Practitioners. Nurse Practitioners in some states can open their own practice much like a doctor does while in other states they work under the supervision of doctors like Physicians Assistants do. Nurse Practitioners have advanced degrees and can diagnose and treat illness, prescribe medications, etc.