nurse

1. Anyone performing this role, regardless of training or profession. (informal) · My aunt was my nurse while I recuperated at home from surgery.
2. A medical worker performing this role, typically someone trained to provide such care but having credentials and rank below a doctor or physician assistant. · The nurse made her rounds through the hospital ward.
3. A medical worker, such as a registered nurse, having training, credentials, and rank above a nurse assistant.
4. One who, or that which, brings up, rears, causes to grow, trains, or fosters. (figuratively) · Eton College has been called "the chief nurse of England's statesmen".
5. A shrub or tree that protects a young plant.
6. A lieutenant or first officer who takes command when the captain is unfit for his place.
7. A larva of certain trematodes, which produces cercariae by asexual reproduction.

Plural nurses