Nurse Duties and Responsibilities

Nurse duties and responsibilities in South Africa depend heavily on the category a nurse is registered in with the South African Nursing Council. Nursing is a regulated profession, and what a nurse may lawfully do is defined by their registration rather than by their employer. This page sets out the main nursing categories, the duties attached to each, how responsibilities differ by setting, and how to phrase nursing duties on a CV or in a job description.

What Does a Nurse Do?

The South African Nursing Council registers nurses in distinct categories, and scope of practice follows the category. Understanding this is essential for anyone writing a nursing CV or advertising a nursing post, because the wrong category in an advert produces unsuitable applications and, worse, expectations that cannot lawfully be met.

Professional nurse, often called a registered nurse, holds the widest scope, including comprehensive patient assessment, care planning, and supervision of other nursing staff.
Enrolled nurse, sometimes called a staff nurse, provides nursing care under the supervision of a professional nurse within a defined scope.
Enrolled nursing auxiliary provides elementary nursing care under supervision, with the narrowest of the three scopes.
Specialist and additional qualifications, such as midwifery or critical care, extend scope further within the relevant field.

Registration must be current, and employers verify it before appointment. Practising outside your registered scope carries professional consequences. For the enrolled category specifically, see enrolled nurse duties, and for related roles see Healthcare Duties.

Key Nurse Duties and Responsibilities

Patient Assessment and Care Planning

Assessing patients on admission and throughout their care.
Recording and interpreting vital signs and clinical observations.
Identifying changes in patient condition and escalating appropriately.
Developing, implementing and reviewing nursing care plans.
Prioritising care across a patient allocation.

Clinical Care Delivery

Administering prescribed medication and monitoring for effects and reactions.
Preparing and administering intravenous therapy where scope and training permit.
Performing wound care and dressing changes.
Managing catheters, drains, tubes and other devices.
Assisting with and performing clinical procedures.
Providing pre-operative and post-operative care.
Responding to clinical emergencies and participating in resuscitation.
Providing end-of-life and palliative care.

Patient Support and Education

Assisting patients with personal care, hygiene, mobility and nutrition.
Educating patients and families about conditions, treatment and self-care.
Providing discharge education and follow-up instructions.
Supporting patients and families emotionally through illness and loss.
Obtaining and confirming informed consent within the nurse’s role.

Records, Team and Governance

Maintaining accurate, contemporaneous nursing records.
Handing over comprehensively between shifts.
Supervising and mentoring enrolled nurses, auxiliaries and students.
Maintaining infection prevention and control standards.
Checking, storing and recording medication, including scheduled substances.
Reporting adverse events, incidents and near misses.
Participating in quality improvement and clinical audit.
Maintaining professional development and current registration.

Daily Tasks of a Nurse

A nursing shift is structured around handover, scheduled care and the unscheduled events in between.

Handover: receive report on each patient, confirm allocations and check outstanding orders and results.
Assessment round: observations, pain and risk assessments, and review of each patient against the care plan.
Medication rounds: administer and record medication at the scheduled times, within the scope the registration allows.
Treatments and procedures: wound care, drips, catheter care and specimen collection as ordered.
Documentation: chart observations, interventions and patient responses as they happen rather than at the end of the shift.
Coordination: liaise with doctors, allied health, families and the next shift, and escalate deterioration promptly.

Nurse Skills and Competencies

Nursing competence is assessed on clinical judgement as much as on technical skill.

Clinical assessment: recognising deterioration early and acting on it.
Scope awareness: knowing precisely what your registration category permits and refusing what it does not.
Accurate documentation: records that are contemporaneous, factual and legally defensible.
Infection prevention and control: consistent practice, not just when observed.
Communication: clear handover, and explaining care to patients and families with empathy.
Resilience and prioritisation: working safely through a full shift when the ward is short-staffed.

Nurse Duties by Workplace or Industry

Ward nursing in a hospital involves a patient allocation, structured handovers and multidisciplinary coordination. Theatre nursing centres on scrub and circulating roles, instrument accountability and sterile technique. Critical care involves intensive monitoring and higher-acuity interventions requiring additional qualification.

Primary health care and clinic nursing in the South African public sector often involves considerable autonomy, including screening, chronic disease management and health education, sometimes with additional qualifications permitting nurse-initiated management. Occupational health nursing focuses on workplace health surveillance and injury management. Community nursing involves home visits, often alone, with the judgment that requires.

Nurse Duties for a CV

A nursing CV is screened first on registration category and currency, so put your SANC registration number, category and any additional qualifications at the top. Then use duty bullets to show the setting, acuity and scope you have worked at.

Registered as a professional nurse with the South African Nursing Council, registration current.
Provided comprehensive nursing care in a thirty-bed surgical ward, managing an allocation of eight patients per shift.
Administered prescribed medication including intravenous therapy, monitoring for adverse reactions.
Assessed patients on admission and developed individualised nursing care plans.
Recognised and escalated clinical deterioration, initiating emergency response where required.
Supervised and mentored enrolled nurses, auxiliaries and student nurses on the ward.
Maintained accurate nursing records and delivered structured shift handovers.
Managed post-operative care including wound care, drain management and pain assessment.
Completed continuing professional development to maintain registration.

Related Job Roles and Responsibilities

These guides cover the roles and next steps most closely related to this one.

Frequently Asked Questions About Nurse Duties

What are the main nurse duties and responsibilities?

The main duties are assessing patients and developing care plans, administering prescribed medication, performing clinical procedures such as wound care within scope, monitoring and escalating changes in condition, supporting patients with personal care and education, maintaining accurate records, supervising junior staff and maintaining infection control.

How do nurse duties differ by registration category?

Scope follows registration. A professional nurse holds the widest scope including comprehensive assessment, care planning and supervision. An enrolled nurse works within a defined scope under professional nurse supervision. An enrolled nursing auxiliary provides elementary care under supervision. Additional qualifications extend scope within that field.

What are examples of nurse duties?

Examples include assessing a patient on admission and developing a care plan, administering intravenous therapy and monitoring for reactions, recognising clinical deterioration and initiating an emergency response, managing post-operative wound care and drains, and supervising an enrolled nurse during a shift.

How do nursing duties differ between hospital and clinic settings?

Hospital ward nursing centres on a patient allocation with structured handovers and multidisciplinary coordination. Primary health care and clinic nursing often involves greater autonomy, including screening, chronic disease management and health education. Theatre, critical care and community nursing each carry distinct skill and qualification requirements.

How should nursing duties be written in a job description or CV?

On a CV, lead with your SANC registration category and number, then show setting, acuity, patient allocation and scope. In a job description, state the required registration category explicitly, describe the unit and acuity, give the nurse-to-patient ratio and shift pattern, and ensure no listed duty exceeds the advertised scope.

Last reviewed: 2 September 2026