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Teaching is a major role of the nurse in restoring health, promoting
health and preventing illness. When a person is ill, the nurse
demonstrates things the patient can do to help with recovery. For
example, nurses teach patients to cough and breathe deeply after
surgery to prevent lung complications. They show patients how to
walk on crutches. They teach people with diabetes to monitor their
blood sugar.
Whenever the nurse works with a patient, the nurse uses the
opportunity to teach that person about self-care. Nurses teach both
patients and their families about proper diet and nutrition, cleanliness
and hygiene, exercise, sleep and rest and all the other aspects of a
healthy life.
Before the patient leaves the hospital, the nurse teaches the patient
and family about care at home. For example, nurses teach family
members how to bathe the person or wash his or her hair in bed,
and how to feed the person or change dressings.
Nurses teach people how to minimize the effects of disability so that
they will have the best quality of life.
Nurses are with people during the most critical times of their lives.
Nurses are with people when they are born, when they are injured or
ill, when they die. People share the most intimate details of their
lives with nurses; they undress for nurses, and trust them to
perform painful procedures.
Nurses are at the bedside of the sick and suffering 24 hours a day.
They are there when patients cannot sleep because of pain or fear
or loneliness. They are there to feed patients, bathe them, and to
support them.
Nurses have a long history of caring for the patient and speaking for
his or her needs. That is what advocacy is about: supporting the
patient, speaking on that person’s behalf, and interceding when
necessary. This advocacy is a part of the nurse’s caring and a part
of the closeness and trust between nurse and patient that gives
nursing a very special place in health care.

Nurses care for patients continuously, 24 hours a day. They help
patients to do what they would do for themselves if they could.
Nurses take care of their patients, making sure that they can breathe
properly, seeing that they get enough fluids and enough
nourishment, helping them rest and sleep, making sure that they are
comfortable, taking care of their need to eliminate wastes from the
body, and helping them to avoid the harmful consequences of being
immobile, like stiff joints and pressure sores.
The nurse often makes independent decisions about the care the
patient needs based on what the nurse knows about that person and
the problems that may occur. For example, the nurse may decide
that, in order to prevent pressure sores, the patient needs to be
turned every two hours. However, the nurse may consult the doctor
about this if it is possible that turning the patient might cause some
other problem. Thus the nurse uses understanding of medical
conditions, as well as knowledge of nursing, in deciding on patient
care.
The nurse not only takes care of the patient but also gives comfort
and support to the patient and his or her family. When the patient
cannot recover, the nurse helps to make sure that the death is
peaceful.
When a person becomes ill or is injured, generally the doctor
assesses the patient, diagnoses the patient’s problem and decides
on the treatment needed to cure the problem or relieve the patient’s
symptoms. In the past only the doctor assessed and
diagnosed. Today, however, nurses play a large role in evaluating
patients and detecting problems. In some rural areas, nurses admit
patients to hospital and manage their care, referring only the most
critical patients to distant medical centres.
In every hospital nurses carry out many of the treatments prescribed
for the patient. For example, the doctor may prescribe surgery or
bed rest or a certain therapy. The doctor will perform some of these
treatments, such as surgery. It is the nurse who gives most of the
treatments. If a patient needs intravenous therapy, usually the nurse
sets up the intravenous line and gives the patient the fluids and
drugs prescribed. If the patient needs an injection, it is the nurse
who gives it. The nurse changes the patient’s dressings and
monitors the healing of the wound. The nurse gives medication for
pain. Many physicians order medication for pain “to be given as
needed”. They let the nurse decide when to give the medication.
The nurse also monitors the patient’s progress to make sure that
the recovery has no complications. Because nurses have more
frequent contact with patients than other staff, they often find
problems before anyone else.