Nurse

Nurses are the backbone of patient care in Indian hospitals — assessing patients, administering medications, monitoring vitals, running IV lines, assisting in surgery, managing wards, and being the first to spot a deteriorating patient before a doctor arrives. In India, the entry routes are ANM (Auxiliary Nurse Midwifery, 2 years), GNM (General Nursing & Midwifery, 3 years), or BSc Nursing (4 years), with MSc Nursing and post-basic specializations for ICU, oncology, cardiac, and neonatal care. Workplaces span government super-specialty hospitals (AIIMS, PGIMER, JIPMER), large private chains (Apollo, Fortis, Manipal, Max, Medanta), nursing homes, community health centres, and increasingly the NHS UK, the Gulf, and Australia where Indian nurses are heavily recruited at multiples of local salaries. The work mixes deep technical skill (sterile technique, drug calculations, ventilator management) with sustained emotional labour — long shifts, families in distress, and the responsibility of being the patient's most consistent advocate inside the system.

• Take handover, do a head-to-toe patient assessment, and chart baseline vitals at shift start
• Administer scheduled and PRN medications under doctor's orders, with double-check on high-risk drugs
• Monitor vital signs hourly (or continuously in ICU) and escalate any early-warning-score change
• Run IV lines, manage infusion pumps, draw blood samples, and send labs to the in-house laboratory
• Perform sterile dressings, urinary catheter care, NG tube management, and pressure-area care
• Attend consultant rounds, take down new orders, and update the EMR or paper file in real time