A Day in the Life of a Nurse, According to Nurses Themselves

Curious about what it’s like to spend a day in the life of a nurse? Daily workflows for nurses can be quite different depending on the specialty. For example, the daily routine of a nurse in a hospital will be dissimilar to a day in the life of a clinic nurse. And remember that not every nurse works in a patient-facing role — many are in academia, device sales, and other areas.

If you’re in nursing school or thinking about enrolling, it’s common for new graduate nurses to enter acute care medicine in a hospital. Medical-surgical, intensive care, inpatient pediatrics, and emergency department nursing are all acute care specialties. In a day in the life of a nurse in one of these roles, these are some of the tasks you’ll be most likely to perform:

• Head-to-toe assessments
• Medication administration
• Blood draws
• IV insertion
• Documentation
• Patient education
• Admissions and discharges
• Conferring with the interdisciplinary team
• Supporting families and care providers
• Cleaning and sanitizing equipment
• Changing wound dressings

Nurses in specialties develop more specific skills and job roles. For example, a nurse in a cardiac telemetry unit may analyze cardiac rhythms as part of their daily shift routine. A nurse working in dialysis will be adept at programming dialysis machines according to a patient’s ordered regimen.

A Day in the Life of a Nurse in a Hospital

Trying to get a feel for what your daily life would be like working in a hospital? The rhythms of a typical nursing shift depend on a number of factors, including:

• Shift length: You might work 8-hour shifts, 12-hour shifts, or another length depending on your hospital’s staffing systems. You might also work day shift, night shift, or somewhere in between.

• Patient load: Working on a higher acuity unit, such as the CVICU, will mean that you have fewer patients but more tasks for each one.

• Specialty: In many specialties, such as med-surg and intensive care, you’ll be assigned to specific patients each shift. In others, such as the OR or PACU, you might see many patients per shift for a shorter amount of time.

Even in a single unit, your day-to-day rhythm varies based on how sick your patients are and any transfers, admissions, or discharges you get throughout the day. Here’s a sample workflow of a nurse working a 12-hour day on an inpatient hospital unit:

0645: Arrive to the unit and make a note of your patient assignment.

0700: Attend unit huddle.

0705–0725: Receive shift report from outgoing nurses.

0730–0800: Gather medications and supplies for first patient visits.

0800–1000: Complete first medication passes, assisting with breakfast, assessments, vital signs, and interdisciplinary team rounds.

1000–1100: Chart, communicate with providers, and catch up on tasks.

1100–1200: Get patients ready for lunch and pass lunchtime medications.

1200–1230: Take your lunch break.

1230–1300: Check in with patients, chart, and catch up with care tasks.

1300–1500: Manage patient education, discharges, wound care, and assist physical and occupational therapy.

1500–1700: Complete patient care tasks, baths, and communicate with family and the care team.

1700–1800: Assist patients with dinner and evening medication passes, and finish any remaining care tasks.

1800–1845: Finish charting and preparing for shift report.

Day in the Life of a Clinic Nurse

Nurses in clinics tend to work a daytime schedule, seeing different patients throughout the day. They might assist with outpatient procedures, vaccine administration, education, and patient follow-up. Their schedules also vary widely based on specialty, clinic schedule, and more. Check out the daily workflow you might experience in outpatient clinic nursing:

0745: Arrive to work, clean your workstation, and review your patient schedule for the day.

0800: Prepare your first exam rooms for patients and get supplies ready.

0830: Begin first patient visit, take them back to be weighed, complete their visit questionnaire, and prepare them for any procedures.

0845–1200: Continue assisting with patient visits, cleaning up rooms once patients leave, and helping your coworkers with their tasks.

1200–1230: Take your lunch break.

1230–1600: Continue assisting with patient visits.

1600–1700: Complete final room cleanings, taking used supplies to sterile processing, and preparing the clinic for the next day.

A Day in the Life of a Nurse, According to Our Nurse Writers

To give you a more specific look into what it’s like to be a nurse, we asked our writers about their experiences. Their varied backgrounds and skills reveal how varied nursing can be, and how you can make this career your own.

Ann Real, BSN, RN

Ann is passionate about holistic health, and has experience in addiction recovery medicine, mental health, and neurological care. Learn more about Ann’s experience.

“Addiction recovery nursing is one of a kind. First, you don’t work in a hospital — you work in a facility that resembles a cozy home or a tranquil meditation retreat. Some luxury facilities even have pools, gyms, and personal chefs for the patients. Just like in other psychiatric nursing setups, it’s not bedside care. Typically, two nurses handle over 20 patients — one for medications and one for charting.

Job perks include the ability to establish meaningful connections with patients and make a difference. The challenge is that patients are often highly med-seeking, and educating them on healthy coping strategies is a struggle — having a health coach background is a plus.”

Danielle Roques, BSN, RN

Dani has worked in several acute care areas, including the PACU, ED, and adult and neonatal intensive care. Learn more about Dani’s experience.

“The workflow in the PACU changes every day and is dependent on the operating room schedule and the surgeons working. Mornings in the PACU start slow, without any patients on the unit. I’d spend the first hour or so preparing all of the patient rooms for admission, making sure to set up safety equipment and emergency medications. By that point, operating room staff would start bringing patients to our department straight from surgery.

We spend about 5–10 minutes getting report from the surgical team and making sure the patient is stable prior to their departure. We recover some patients over a few hours and send them home to recover. Other patients recover for about an hour and then we send them to a hospital unit to recover overnight. Prior to discharging any patient from our unit, we need to make sure that their vital signs, mental status, and physical assessment findings are within expected limits and that their family members have been notified of the conclusion of surgery.

PACU nurses aren’t scheduled for night or weekend shifts, but are expected to provide on-call coverage during those periods to ensure patients are recovered safely. No two days are the same, and the overall workflow is much different than in the ICU or in normal nursing units.”

Katherine Zheng, PhD, BSN

Kat has experience in nursing academia, research, and health policy analysis. Learn more about Kat’s experience working in academia.

“The day in the life of an academic nurse researcher can look quite different depending on what phase our research projects are in. Typically though, I’ll start the day by checking emails to see if my research collaborators need anything urgent. Then I’ll block out the next few hours to write up grant applications and manuscripts, or prepare presentations for conferences.

If I’m in the middle of conducting a project, I may spend another few hours doing data analysis or conducting interviews with patients/participants. Throw in some check-in meetings with various members of the research team, and that generally wraps up a typical work day for me.”

Marie Hasty, RN, BSN

Marie worked in inpatient cardiac medicine before transitioning to the MICU. During this time, she worked nights, where many new graduate nurses begin their careers. Learn more about Marie’s experience.

“Night shifts have a different rhythm compared to days, since the focus is on allowing patients to rest and continuing the plan of care. A typical night shift on my cardiac unit started with handoffs on our four to five patients, which usually took about 20 minutes. Then for the next two to four hours I’d be passing medications, seeing patients, and charting my assessments.

I might be in and out of a patient’s room throughout the night if they needed frequent blood sugar checks, if they were unstable, or if they were on IV medication. In the morning, around 4 a.m., things would pick up again and I’d do another med pass before getting everything ready for the morning handoff.”

Find a New Nursing Routine

Want to learn more about what it’s like to spend a day in the life of a nurse? IntelyCare has jobs for CNAs, LPNs, RN, and NPs. Sign up for nursing job notifications to get personalized listings in your area and specialty.