What Do Nurses Really Do?
Over the years, the question of what nurses really do on a daily basis has confounded not
only the general public, but also those who work in the healthcare field. However, one cannot
attempt to explain what nurses do on a daily basis without first understanding what nursing is
and why the healthcare field even exists. The field of nursing exists primarily to assist the
physicians and to facilitate the recovery of ill, weak patients. Nurses exist to show each patient
compassion, so the patient will feel welcome, and not like a burden onto others. It is the nurses’
obligation to possess the knowledge necessary to ensure and facilitate the patients’ health and
healing process.
According to Suzanne Gordon (2006), “Nurses use their considerable knowledge to
protect patients from the risks and consequences of illness, disability, and infirmity, as well as
from the risks and consequences of the treatment of illness. They also protect patients from the
risks that occur when illness and vulnerability make it difficult, impossible, or even lethal for
patients to perform the activities of daily living” (p. 1). Gordon’s personal thoughts on what
nurses do basically wraps the nurse’s duties into a nut-shell. Although her statement is quite
vague, with no clear-cut answer to what nurses actually do daily, one gets an idea of the overall
role of the nurse in the healthcare environment and, more importantly, to the patient. Even some
of the most obvious roles of the nurses, such as building a relationship with the family, has a
positive impact on the patients’ health and the family’s coping with a loved ones’ illness. The
main idea in Gordon’s belief of what nurses really do is protection. Everyday a nurse’s main goal
is to protect the patient from existing and future complications of illness and disease. Patients
realize this and tend to develop a close, trustworthy relationship with the nurse because the
nurses is usually the first person to interact with the patient while he or she is going through a
health crisis. For example, the nurse is the first one who come to the patient’s rescue when he or