A nurse is a healthcare professional trained to care for people who are sick or injured. Nurses work in hospitals, clinics, schools, and doctors' offices, checking vital signs like temperature and blood pressure, giving medications, treating wounds, and helping patients feel more comfortable. The school nurse you visit when you feel ill is a nurse, as are the people in scrubs who care for patients in hospital rooms.

Becoming a nurse usually requires years of education and training in subjects like anatomy, medicine, and patient care. Nurses need both scientific knowledge and compassion: they must understand how the body works while also being kind and patient with people who are scared or in pain. Many nurses specialize in particular areas, like pediatric nurses who work with children or surgical nurses who assist during operations.

The word can also be a verb meaning to care for someone who's sick or injured. A parent might nurse a child through the flu, bringing soup and checking their temperature. You might nurse a scraped knee by cleaning and bandaging it carefully.

Florence Nightingale, a British nurse in the 1850s, helped transform nursing into a respected medical profession requiring serious training and expertise.