Nurse facts for kids
A nurse is a special person who is trained to care for people who are sick or hurt. Nurses work closely with doctors and other health care workers. Their main goal is to help patients get well and stay healthy. Nurses also offer comfort and support to families during difficult times.
Being a nurse is a professional job, much like being a doctor. However, the training for nurses is different. It usually takes three to five years, or even longer, to become a licensed nurse.
Nurses work in many different places. You can find them in hospitals, doctor's offices, and even in the community. Some nurses visit people at home if they can't leave their house.
Many people choose to become nurses because they want to help patients directly. Nurses talk to patients, do what they need, and carefully watch to make sure everything goes well. They get to see people recover and feel better.
Just like doctors, nurses can choose a special area to work in. Some nurses train to help during surgery. Others learn about important health topics like nutrition (what foods to eat) or how to prevent diseases. Nurses have many different jobs to help people.
There's a big need for nurses because hospitals often don't have enough of them. Because of this, some nurses travel to different places to work for a few months. This is called "travel nursing."
Contents
What are the Different Types of Nurses?
Registered Nurses (RNs)
In places like the U.S., a Registered Nurse (RN) is a nurse who has officially completed their training and is licensed to practice. In some hospitals, you might see RNs wearing uniforms with caps that have two black stripes. This helps people know they are a Registered Nurse.
Nursing in Australia
In Australia, nurses are called Registered Nurses or Enrolled Nurses. Both types of nurses need to complete special education after high school. An Enrolled Nurse studies for about 12 to 18 months. A Registered Nurse needs to earn a Bachelor's degree from a university.
Do Men and Women Become Nurses?
Yes! While nursing used to be mostly a job for women in many countries, that has changed. Now, both men and women can be nurses. Because of this, many nursing job titles have been updated to be gender-neutral.
One special nursing role is a midwife. A midwife helps mothers during childbirth. This term is still commonly used, even though some men are also midwives. The main group that oversees nursing in the UK is called the Nursing and Midwifery Council.
How Do Nursing Teams Work?
Some medical and surgical groups work together as teams. This means that a group of nurses and doctors often work with the same senior surgeons. This helps reduce mistakes because everyone knows how the team works. It also helps younger nurses learn from experienced ones.
Working as a team also allows specialist groups to help more than one hospital. This is very useful when a hospital might not have enough work in a specific area to have a full team all the time.
Images for kids
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Russian Sisters of Mercy in the Crimea, 1854-1855
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Florence Nightingale was an important person in making modern nursing what it is today. She worked during the Crimean War. Nightingale believed that health was linked to five things: fresh air, clean water, good drainage, cleanliness, and light (especially sunlight). If these things were missing, people would get sick. Nightingale helped define what nursing was and how nurses should be trained.
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A recruiting poster for Australian nurses from World War I
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A nurse in Indonesia examining a patient
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A nurse at Runwell Hospital, Wickford, Essex, in 1943
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Two nurses in Arizona, 1943
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See also
In Spanish: Enfermería para niños
