Doctor vs. Nurse: Know the Difference
By Shumaila Saeed || Updated on December 25, 2023
A doctor is a medical professional who diagnoses and treats diseases, while a nurse provides care and supports patient recovery.
Key Differences
Doctors undergo extensive education to diagnose and treat diseases, perform surgeries, and manage patients' overall healthcare. They often specialize in a specific area of medicine and may conduct medical research. Nurses are trained to provide care, assist with patient recovery, and support doctors in medical procedures. They focus on the holistic care of patients, including their emotional and physical comfort.
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Nov 08, 2023
Doctors hold medical degrees and have the authority to prescribe medications. They lead healthcare teams and make critical decisions about patient care. Nurses, with degrees in nursing, implement doctors' care plans and monitor patients' progress. They administer medication, provide wound care, and educate patients on managing their health.
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In healthcare settings, doctors are responsible for diagnosing illnesses and creating treatment plans. Nurses carry out these plans and have more direct and continuous contact with patients. Nurses also serve as a bridge between patients and doctors, ensuring communication and understanding of the treatment.
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Doctors focus on the disease and its cure, relying on scientific knowledge and clinical expertise. They may also perform surgeries and complex medical procedures. Nurses prioritize the care of the individual, often providing the hands-on support and monitoring needed to aid recovery.
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While both doctors and nurses are essential to healthcare, their roles differ in scope and practice. Doctors primarily focus on medical treatment and procedures, whereas nurses provide comprehensive patient care and advocate for their well-being.
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Nov 08, 2023
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Comparison Chart
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Doctor and Nurse Definitions
Doctor
A licensed medical practitioner
The doctor diagnosed the illness as influenza.
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Nurse
To manage and promote the growth of
He nursed the small business into a successful company.
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Nurse
A person trained to provide medical care for the sick or disabled, especially one who is licensed and works in a hospital or physician's office.
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Doctor
To tamper with or falsify
He doctored the document to hide the truth.
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Doctor
To repair or restore
The mechanic doctored the old engine until it ran smoothly.
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Doctor
To treat a problem or illness
The specialist doctored my chronic knee pain.
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Nurse
One that serves as a nurturing or fostering influence or means
"Town life is the nurse of civilization" (C.L.R. James).
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Doctor
A person who is licensed to practice medicine and has trained at a school of medicine or a school of osteopathic medicine; a physician.
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Nurse
(Zoology) A worker ant or bee that feeds and cares for the colony's young.
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Doctor
Any of certain other healthcare professionals, such as a dentist, optometrist, chiropractor, podiatrist, or veterinarian.
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Doctor
A practitioner of alternative medicine or folk medicine who does not have traditional medical credentials.
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Nurse
To cause or allow to take milk from the breast or teat
A mother nursing her baby.
Whales nursing their young.
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Doctor
A person who has earned the highest academic degree, usually a PhD, awarded by a college or university in a specified discipline.
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Nurse
To try to cure by special care or treatment
Nurse a cough with various remedies.
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Nurse
To treat carefully, especially in order to prevent pain
He nursed his injured knee by shifting his weight to the other leg.
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Doctor
Abbr. Dr. Used as a title and form of address for a person holding the degree of doctor.
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Nurse
To manage or guide carefully; look after with care; foster
Nursed her business through the depression.
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Doctor
A rig or device contrived for remedying an emergency situation or for doing a special task.
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Nurse
To consume slowly, especially in order to conserve
Nursed one drink all evening.
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Doctor
(Informal) To give medical treatment to
"[He] does more than practice medicine. He doctors people. There's a difference" (Charles Kuralt).
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Nurse
To take milk from the breast or teat; suckle
The baby is nursing. Puppies nurse for a few weeks.
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Doctor
To falsify or change in such a way as to make favorable to oneself
Doctored the evidence.
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Nurse
To feed an offspring from the breast or teat
A mother who's nursing.
What to feed cows when they're nursing.
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Doctor
To add ingredients so as to improve or conceal the taste, appearance, or quality of
Doctor the soup with a dash of sherry.
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Doctor
To alter or modify for a specific end
Doctored my standard speech for the small-town audience.
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Nurse
A person (usually a woman) who takes care of other people’s young.
They hired a nurse to care for their young boy.
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Doctor
(Baseball) To deface or apply a substance to (the ball) in violation of the rules in order to throw a pitch with extraordinary movement
Was ejected because he doctored the ball with a piece of sandpaper.
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Nurse
A person trained to provide care for the sick.
The nurse made her rounds through the hospital ward.
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Nurse
(figurative) One who, or that which, brings up, rears, causes to grow, trains, or fosters.
Eton College has been called "the chief nurse of England's statesmen".
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Doctor
A physician; a member of the medical profession; one who is trained and licensed to heal the sick or injured. The final examination and qualification may award a doctor degree in which case the post-nominal letters are D.O., DPM, M.D., DMD, DDS, in the US or MBBS in the UK.
If you still feel unwell tomorrow, see your doctor.
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Doctor
A person who has attained a doctorate, such as a Ph.D. or Th.D. or one of many other terminal degrees conferred by a college or university.
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Nurse
(nautical) A lieutenant or first officer who takes command when the captain is unfit for his place.
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Doctor
A veterinarian; a medical practitioner who treats non-human animals.
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Nurse
A larva of certain trematodes, which produces cercariae by asexual reproduction.
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Doctor
A nickname for a person who has special knowledge or talents to manipulate or arrange transactions.
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Doctor
(obsolete) A teacher; one skilled in a profession or a branch of knowledge; a learned man.
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Nurse
(transitive) To breastfeed: to feed (a baby) at the breast; to suckle.
She believes that nursing her baby will make him strong and healthy.
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Doctor
(dated) Any mechanical contrivance intended to remedy a difficulty or serve some purpose in an exigency.
The doctor of a calico-printing machine, which is a knife to remove superfluous colouring matter
The doctor, or auxiliary engine, also called "donkey engine"
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Nurse
(transitive) To care for (someone), especially in sickness; to tend to.
She nursed him back to health.
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Nurse
(transitive) To treat kindly and with extra care.
She nursed the rosebush and that season it bloomed.
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Doctor
(transitive) To act as a medical doctor to.
Her children doctored her back to health.
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Nurse
(transitive) To drink slowly, to make it last.
Rob was nursing a small beer.
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Doctor
(transitive) To make (someone) into an (academic) doctor; to confer a doctorate upon.
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Doctor
(transitive) To physically alter (medically or surgically) a living being in order to change growth or behavior.
They doctored their apple trees by vigorous pruning, and now the dwarfed trees are easier to pick.
We may legally doctor a pet to reduce its libido.
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Doctor
(transitive) To genetically alter an extant species.
Mendel's discoveries showed how the evolution of a species may be doctored.
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Nurse
To strike (billiard balls) gently, so as to keep them in good position during a series of shots.
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Doctor
(transitive) To alter or make obscure, as with the intention to deceive, especially a document.
To doctor the signature of an instrument with intent to defraud is an example of forgery.
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Nurse
One who nourishes; a person who supplies food, tends, or brings up; as: (a) A woman who has the care of young children; especially, one who suckles an infant not her own. (b) A person, especially a woman, who has the care of the sick or infirm.
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Nurse
One who, or that which, brings up, rears, causes to grow, trains, fosters, or the like.
The nurse of manly sentiment and heroic enterprise.
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Nurse
A lieutenant or first officer, who is the real commander when the captain is unfit for his place.
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Doctor
A teacher; one skilled in a profession, or branch of knowledge; a learned man.
One of the doctors of Italy, Nicholas Macciavel.
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Nurse
A peculiar larva of certain trematodes which produces cercariæ by asexual reproduction. See Cercaria, and Redia.
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Doctor
An academical title, originally meaning a man so well versed in his department as to be qualified to teach it. Hence: One who has taken the highest degree conferred by a university or college, or has received a diploma of the highest degree; as, a doctor of divinity, of law, of medicine, of music, or of philosophy. Such diplomas may confer an honorary title only.
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Nurse
To nourish; to cherish; to foster
Sons wont to nurse their parents in old age.
Him in Egerian groves Aricia bore,And nursed his youth along the marshy shore.
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Doctor
One duly licensed to practice medicine; a member of the medical profession; a physician.
By medicine life may be prolonged, yet deathWill seize the doctor too.
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Nurse
To bring up; to raise, by care, from a weak or invalid condition; to foster; to cherish; - applied to plants, animals, and to any object that needs, or thrives by, attention.
By what hands [has vice] been nursed into so uncontrolled a dominion?
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Doctor
Any mechanical contrivance intended to remedy a difficulty or serve some purpose in an exigency; as, the doctor of a calico-printing machine, which is a knife to remove superfluous coloring matter; the doctor, or auxiliary engine, called also donkey engine.
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Nurse
To manage with care and economy, with a view to increase; as, to nurse our national resources.
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Doctor
To treat as a physician does; to apply remedies to; to repair; as, to doctor a sick man or a broken cart.
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Nurse
One skilled in caring for young children or the sick (usually under the supervision of a physician)
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Doctor
To tamper with and arrange for one's own purposes; to falsify; to adulterate; as, to doctor election returns; to doctor whisky.
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Nurse
Try to cure by special care of treatment, of an illness or injury;
He nursed his cold with Chinese herbs
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Nurse
Maintain (a theory, thoughts, or feelings);
Bear a grudge
Entertain interesting notions
Harbor a resentment
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Doctor
A licensed medical practitioner;
I felt so bad I went to see my doctor
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Doctor
(Roman Catholic Church) a title conferred on 33 saints who distinguished themselves through the othodoxy of their theological teaching;
The Doctors of the Church greatly influenced Christian thought down to the late Middle Ages
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Nurse
Treat carefully;
He nursed his injured back by liyng in bed several hours every afternoon
He nursed the flowers in his garden and fertilized them regularly
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Doctor
Children take the roles of doctor or patient or nurse and pretend they are at the doctor's office;
The children explored each other's bodies by playing the game of doctor
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Nurse
Give suck to;
The wetnurse suckled the infant
You cannot nurse your baby in public in some places
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Doctor
A person who holds Ph.D. degree from an academic institution;
She is a doctor of philosophy in physics
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Nurse
A healthcare professional providing care and treatment
The nurse checked the patient's vital signs.
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Doctor
Alter and make impure, as with the intention to deceive;
Sophisticate rose water with geraniol
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Nurse
To nourish or tend to during recovery
She nursed her plants back to health.
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Nurse
To harbor a feeling or thought over time
She nursed a grudge for years.
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Doctor
Restore by replacing a part or putting together what is torn or broken;
She repaired her TV set
Repair my shoes please
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Nurse
To breastfeed an infant
She nursed her newborn in the quiet of the nursery.
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Repeatedly Asked Queries
How long does a doctor study for their profession?
Doctors typically undergo 7-10 years of education and training.
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Can a nurse prescribe medication?
Generally, nurses cannot prescribe medication unless they are advanced practice nurses like nurse practitioners.
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What is the main job of a doctor?
Doctors diagnose and treat medical conditions.
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What is the role of a nurse in patient care?
Nurses provide and coordinate patient care, offer support, and educate patients about health conditions.
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Do all doctors have a specialization?
Most doctors eventually specialize, but some may practice as general practitioners.
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Can doctors perform surgery?
Yes, if they are trained and credentialed as surgeons.
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What is the highest degree a doctor can earn?
A Doctor of Medicine (MD) or Doctor of Osteopathic Medicine (DO) is typically considered the highest medical degree.
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Do doctors take the Hippocratic Oath?
Yes, it's a traditional oath on the ethics of practice taken by doctors.
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Are nurses first responders?
Yes, in many emergencies, nurses serve as first responders.
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Do nurses only work in hospitals?
No, nurses work in various settings including clinics, homes, schools, and more.
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Do nurses work independently?
Nurses often work collaboratively with doctors, but can also work independently within their scope of practice.
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Can doctors give nutritional advice?
Yes, doctors can provide nutritional advice, especially if they have specialized in dietetics or nutrition.
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Do doctors have to continue education after earning their degree?
Yes, doctors must keep up with medical advancements through continuing education.
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How do nurses contribute to preventive healthcare?
Nurses educate patients on health maintenance and disease prevention.
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Are nurses involved in diagnosing diseases?
Nurses do not diagnose; they assess patients and assist with implementing treatment plans.
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Can doctors write research papers?
Yes, many doctors contribute to medical research and literature.
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What is a nurse practitioner?
A nurse practitioner is a nurse with advanced training who can perform many of the duties of a doctor.
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Can nurses specialize in certain areas?
Yes, nurses can specialize in areas like pediatrics, emergency care, or oncology.
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Is nursing considered a profession or a vocation?
Nursing is considered both a profession and a vocation due to its specialized training and commitment to care.
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Can doctors work as generalists?
Yes, they can work as generalists, like family physicians.
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Nov 08, 2023
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About Author
Written by
Shumaila SaeedShumaila Saeed, an expert content creator with 6 years of experience, specializes in distilling complex topics into easily digestible comparisons, shining a light on the nuances that both inform and educate readers with clarity and accuracy.
Shumaila Saeed
