Nurse

Nurses are health care professionals that assess, treat, rehabilitate, maintain, promote and optimize patients’ health conditions and diseases. Particularly, nurses assess patients and assist them with the activities needed to help them maintain and regain normal health. This includes focusing on all aspects of the patient’s health, including their social, emotional, physical, and intellectual needs. By partaking in this support role, nurses help treat and manage all kinds of diseases, disabilities, and health conditions.

Nurses provide health care services alongside other health care professionals in a variety of settings including hospitals, prisons, retirement centers, nursing homes, clinics and schools. Some of these services include:

• Assessing and monitoring patients’ health condition.
• Helping patients with medical treatment by providing and prescribing medication and therapy, and by preparing them for medical exams and treatment.
• Maintaining and supporting a patient’s overall health and wellness by assisting with comfort, security, boredom, hygiene, emotional support, managing symptoms and other needs.
• Providing care for disabled, terminally ill, or dying people
• Helping with diagnostic tests and interpreting the results
• Helping develop health care plans for patients
• Operating and monitoring medical equipment
• Recording patient’s medical histories and symptoms
• Educating patients and their families on managing their medical condition post-care
• Promoting public health through education and developing health policies
• Helping patients make informed decisions on their health care

In Ontario, “Nurse”, “Registered Nurse”, “Registered Practical Nurse” and “Nurse Practitioner” is a regulated profession subject to the Standards and Guidelines defined by the College of Nurses of Ontario. For more information on regulatory colleges, view our What is a Regulatory College page.