Questions on Nursing in England

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Greetings,

I watched a show on BBCA last night "24 in the ER" which is a documentary where they film 24 hours in an ER in a major hospital in England. There are interviews and follow ups with patients and staff and so on.

My questions are regarding the titles of some of the staff they interviewed. There were nurses, but some titles I don't know: sister, junior sister, senior sister, and consultant. What is the difference between a sister and a nurse?

Just wondering.

If you know, please let me know. Thank you!

Specializes in ER.

But just to confuse things a Charge Nurse isnt always in charge, and a nurse can be in charge without the title Charge Nurse.

Told you it was confusing!!!

Specializes in Advanced Practice, surgery.
But just to confuse things a Charge Nurse isnt always in charge, and a nurse can be in charge without the title Charge Nurse.

Told you it was confusing!!!

:D

tomorrow on my ward Matron is working early but not in charge, in fact covering a nurse assistant shift.

Specializes in ICU.
what do they call a male who is a charge nurse in the UK? Is he still called a Sister, or is there another name?

I've only ever seen a charge nurse referred to by their first name. Logically if a female charge nurse is 'sister' then the male should be 'brother' lol

Specializes in Spinal Cord injuries, Emergency+EMS.

ref fellows in medical roles given it can take 8 -10 or more years post registration for a doctor to obtain their CCT and be eligible for a consultant post there's a lot less of need for them as StR 4- 6 /7 Registrars probably know as much as new attendings

well if I take you a bit behing you will see that nursing has a history of having Nuns working as Nurses and I guess the dressing of Nurses and nuns in the past was almost the same dressing code. this can help us understand that perhaps the sister name was rather a name that was adopted from the nuns as they also call themselves sister as well.

Med-sestra for a female nurse in Russian, Med-brat for a male nurse

La enfermera for a female nurse in Spanish, el enfermero for a male nurse

Krankenschwester for a female nurse in German, Krankenbruder for a male nurse (ok, I made the last one up) LOL!

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