Quiz: What Do Nurses Really Do?

Nursing is the
broadest, farthest-reaching job in health care: True or False? Take RNAO’s nursing career myth-busting quiz and learn what the profession is really all about.

If you’re drawn to a career in health care, nursing might be right for you.  It offers life-long challenges, exciting chances to grow, and, ultimately, the ability to make a difference in the day-to-day well being of your neighbours, co-workers, friends and family members. 

If you’re drawn to a career in health care, nursing might be right for you.  It offers life-long challenges, exciting chances to grow, and, ultimately, the ability to make a difference in the day-to-day well being of your neighbours, co-workers, friends and family members. 

If you answered true, that ‘nursing is the broadest, farthest-reaching job in health care,’ you were right!

While many nurses care for people hands-on in a clinical setting, there are multitudes of different nursing jobs in other types of settings. And the profession shares one overarching goal—every nurse innovates, advocates and cultivates knowledge-based practices and systemic changes in health care and public health. 

Test your understanding of the profession with RNAO’s quiz, and learn a lot about why the profession draws so many talented, earnest and dedicated Canadians.

1. Only women are nurses. True or false?
   False. Certainly women make up the majority of the profession, but nursing is increasingly employing men. 
   
   
2. Emergency room nursing is consistently fast-paced and dramatic like on TV. True or False.
   False. Many misconceptions exist about what nurses do, in part because of how certain roles are glamorized in television shows. No nursing setting is as consistently fast-paced or dramatic as it is portray in any movie or TV show, even emergency room nursing.
   
   Edie Falco, the actress who plays Nurse Jackie, has discovered herself what the profession is really all about. In an article in RNAO’s RN Journal, Falco says she now realizes “the magnitude of the obstacles that nurses have to deal with in order to perform the simple but noble task of helping people.” From talking to real nurses and watching the on-set nurse expert, she has also recognized the magnitude of knowledgenurses have. 
   
   
3. Nursing is mostly manual labour. True or False.
   False. Nursing is physical and emotion work, but it is also cognitive work. Without an extensive breadth of knowledge and clinical expertise to guide care, nurses would be limited in their ability to advance and improve upon current health outcomes.
   
   This is why nursing care is based on learning, and applying knowledge and experience to achieve clinical excellence. In fact, nursing is a knowledge-based profession.
   
   For example, nurses in Ontario are collectively developing an extensive roster of nursing best practice guidelines (BPGs) through the Registered Nurses’ Association of Ontario.  
   
   Currently there are more than 50 clinical and healthy work environment BPGs that establish cutting edge care standards for client care and management decision making in areas such as Ostomy Care & Management and Preventing and Managing Violence in the Workplace, and the list continues to grow.
   
   Clinical practice guidelines represent a milestone in the advancement of the nursing profession as it continues to evolve and play important roles in transforming the health care system.
   
   
4. Smart medical students only become doctors. True or false.
   False. Nursing takes years of training and knowledge. Nursing education is specialized, intense and rigorous. Students must pass courses in chemistry, anatomy, psychology, pharmacology and biology. They have to pass tough exams, and they go on to evolve and grow their knowledge in practice.
   
   
5. Caring for people includes promoting prevention of illness as well as applying knowledge and skill. True or False
   True. Nurses ultimately care for people of all ages. ‘Care’ includes applying knowledge and skill in clinical practice. However, ‘care’ also takes the form of promoting the prevention of illness and tending to the health of ill, disabled and dying people, which nurses do through: 
   
   -advocacy for health care policy change;
   -promotion of safe and healthy environments;
   -research in care practices;
   -and the creation of standards of best practices in patient and health system management and nursing education.
   
   According to the Canadian Nurses Association, there is a need for better understanding of the optimal role of the Registered Nurses. “RNs are crucial to the team’s achievement of better screening and health promotion, early detection, chronic disease management and enhanced access. RNs take a comprehensive, holistic approach that isn’t limited to chronic disease management.
   
   
6. Nurses get their hands dirty. True or false?
   True. While nursing can involve some unpleasant work, it’s a minor part of the average job. Plus there are many different types of roles for nurses. For example, you can become a nurse researcher, public health nurse, nursing teacher, nurse executive or work in a law firm to name but a few examples.Check out dozens of different roles in Types of Nursing when you are done the quiz.
   
   
7. Nurses just follow doctor's orders. True or false?
   False. Nursing is a unique practice of its own. Nursing is defined as the protection, promotion and optimization of health and abilities, prevention of illness and advocacy in the care of individuals, families, communities and populations. And in fact, the lines between the two professions are increasing blurring. Academic Medicine, the journal of the American Association of Medical Colleges, called for articles in 2013 because aspects that used to differentiate the two, e.g., degree of education, medical authority such as prescribing abilities, and even lifestyle and money, are no longer all that different.Still not convinced? Check out 10 Reasons why Nursing is a Smart Career Choice.