School Nurse

"Now see, that didn't hurt a bit. Back to detention!"

The Medic of the school, the School Nurse is the local health professional responsible for providing first aid for injuries sustained during gym class or schoolyard brawls and helping students with their health problems. School nurses administer vaccinations and liaise with government public health agencies. Some school nurses also multitask as student counselors, giving students advice on their personal problems. In a high school, they might hold health care classes (e.g., on alcohol and drugs, sexual health and pregnancy, and healthy lifestyles).

In the world of anime and manga, the school nurse is almost Always Female, twentysomething, and extremely attractive. They tend to do their hair in buns, wear corrective lenses and white labcoats, combining aspects of Hot Librarian, and Hospital Hottie. For most intents and purposes, however, attractive school nurses count predominantly as Hot Teachers, being school staff over a librarian, scientist or physician.

In Western productions, however, the reverse is often true. In these works, the school nurse is middle-aged, rather ugly, and generally grumpy about having to take care of so many snot-nosed brats (very similar to the lunch lady). Comedy works often portray her as something akin to a Torture Technician, using all sorts of excuses to poke, prod, and jam needles into our plucky protagonists. Much of this portrayal is a homage to Nurse Ratched from One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest.

The school nurse is often the other part of a Two-Teacher School, and perhaps due to the aforementioned counselor associations she tends to be the one on closer terms with the school-aged main cast, serving as a Psychologist Teacher, Reasonable Authority Figure and/or a Cool Big Sis.

With budget cuts to schools and increasing worries about liability over treatment provided to students, the school nurse is at risk of becoming a Dead Horse Trope, at least in North American schools.

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Examples:

Anime & Manga

• There's a male school nurse in Hana-Kimi.
• Happy Lesson: Yayoi Sanzenin, who like Sakura is also a Miko.
• It's revealed that Tsugumi Shibata became one in Hell Girl season 3.
• Another Rare Male Example... sorta: Kyousuke Tamamo from Hell Teacher Nube posed as one to approach Hiroshi and kidnap him...
• A male nurse is in Here is Greenwood, the protagonist's older brother.
• Highschool of the Dead's Shizuka Marikawa is extremely ditzy and the most aesthetically blessed in a group of very well-endowed females.
• Hades from Hokenshitsu no Shinigami - a Rare Male Example, and is an equally rare main character.
• Kaori Doumoto in Hungry Heart: Wild Striker is more of a "Team Doctor", since she supervises the soccer team, but in practice her role is pretty much this.
• Great Teacher Onizuka has Naoko Moritaka (in the anime her role was given to Nao Kadena, an existing character from GTO: The Early Years).
• Junsui Adolescence is a Yuri manga about the romantic relationship between school nurse Matsumoto and her student Nanao.
• Kindergarten Wars: Gordon is the school doctor. Unlike most examples, he isn’t an attractive woman nor a pretty boy (like Rita hoped), but huge middle aged man.
• The Lucky Star manga features Fuyuki.
• Maria no Danzai: Mari Nagare used to be bullied in school; the nurse's office was the only place where she felt safe. Seeking to emulate her benefactor, Mari went and got the qualifications to become a nursing teacher, only to ultimately let go of her dream in favor of raising her son Kiritaka. After he is bullied to death, Mari spends two years making preparations to avenge her son, the last of which involves becoming the nurse at the school he used to go to; she ultimately secures the job by blowing the principal in his office. Maria Akeboshi then goes on to become such a universally beloved nurse in the present that the students call her "Saint Maria of the Infirmary", leaving her free to hunt down her targets while no one suspects her.
• Lucoa becomes the school nurse of Oborozuka Elementary in chapter 2 of Miss Kobayashi's Dragon Maid: Lucoa is my xx so she can spend more time with Shouta. Given that she doesn't have any credential to speak of, she had to mess with the principal's memories to get the job.
• Aiko Kuriyama in Mitsudomoe
• Michiru Onigawara from MM!. She's not very personable for a nurse, though.
• My Bride is a Mermaid has San's mother taking up the position.
• In My Hero Academia, the Superhero School has Recovery Girl, a little old lady whose Magic Kiss speeds up the body's natural healing—this isn't foolproof, however, especially since it drains the injured person's energy as much as healing normally would. She also seems to know some traditional medicine, at one point performing surgery on Izuku's hand.
• Yohko Sagisawa, a minor character in My-HiME.
• Yohko Helene of My-Otome fills this role in addition to maintaining the school's technology.
• Nurse Hitomi's Monster Infirmary has the the titular nurse.
• Yuki-sensei in Ojamajo Doremi is both school nurse and counselor, which comes in handy throughout the story. Considering her true identity, learning these skills is certainly an accomplishment for a witch.
• Played with in Misao from Peach Girl. While she may not be stunning to anyone else, Kairi has harbored a crush on her for years.
• Medusa from Soul Eater. After she reveals herself as a villain, Mira Naigus takes over the position.
• Okamoto-sensei from Star Driver.
• The Story Between a Dumb Prefect and a High School Girl with an Inappropriate Skirt Length doesn't have a school nurse, but the role is filled by male student Yuu Izubuchi, a former Japanese Delinquent and health committee member.
• Dr. Ryouko Mikado from To Love Ru.
• Sakura from Urusei Yatsura, who is also a Miko (this is especially funny for complicated reasons).
• Tokiko Magami from X/1999.
• Why the Hell Are You Here, Teacher!?: Chizuru Tachibana is a school nurse and the fourth Hot Teacher introduced in the series.

Fan Works

• In the DeviantArt fancomic Disney High School, the titular school's nurse is none other than Jessica Rabbit—but she's smart enough to know the effect she has on the boys and plans accordingly.
• Dr. Anthony Fauci from Miraculous: The Phoenix Rises is the school nurse at Waterloo High, who goes back and forth on banning and mandating ice packs for students, then tries to have all of the students in a stay at home lockdown in response to the monster attacks

Films — Live-Action

• Nurse Specks from Sky High (2005). Naturally, her superpower is x-ray vision.

Literature

• The Chalet School has one matron through most of the series, known as "Matey", who is mostly tough but fair. In one book, she is replaced by a much nastier matron.
• Madame Pomfrey from the Harry Potter series, who mixes the archetypes above. She may be older, and grumpy about the kids hurting themselves, but she also clearly cares about the children she treats.
• There's a children's picture book called The School Nurse from the Black Lagoon. The narrator hears all sorts of things about the school nurse (incidentally named Ms. Hearse), then has to go to the nurse himself. It turns out that although the nurse is indeed named Ms. Hearse, she is pretty and very nice.

Live-Action TV

• Cate Hennessy in 8 Simple Rules.
• Nurse Phoebe, School Nurse in Beakman's World (and yes, they did say it as a Large Ham Title). Which, given the nature of the show, was just Senta Moses with a granny wig and voice.
• Conchata Ferrell was a school nurse who abused her authority in Buffy the Vampire Slayer some years before she became Berta the housekeeper.
• Joan Redfern of the Doctor Who two-parter "Human Nature/Family of Blood".
• Ahn Eun-young, the titular school nurse in The School Nurse Files.
• Zoey 101 has one of every type. Nurse Krutcher is grumpy, has No Indoor Voice and is a bit of a Torture Technician. The new nurse, Shannon,is pretty and friendly, but only treats lower school kids.

Video Games

• The spinstery old nurse in Bully stalks around the school, muttering under her breath about how much she hates children.
• Male example: Mr. Ekoda from Persona 3, that creepy guy who also gives lectures on magic. Don't take his medicine (unless you need to build Courage).
• Kyoko Minazuki from Rival Schools, who later doubles as Justice High's chemistry teacher.
• Yandere Simulator: Akademi High has two over the course of the game- Nasu Kankoshi, the normal nurse, and Muja Kina, her substitute during the 6th week. Nasu is a side character whose primary purpose is to prevent Ayano from easily getting her hands on various drugs, but Muja Kina is a rival for Senpai's affections.

Visual Novels

• Saiko-sensei in 11eyes.
• Nurse Kaori Shitou from Crescendo (JP), a potential love interest for the lead male.
• The Nurse in Katawa Shoujo is a precious Rare Male Example of this trope.
• As the battleship Amanohara is also a school in Lime-iro Senkitan and Lime-iro Ryukitan X, nurse Sumi Ichijouji fulfills this role. She's not one of the main heroines, but she stills wants to get in Shintaro/Kyoshiro's pants.
• Yujin, a male example is the school nurse of Nameless. He is cares very little about the students, however, and only seems to work there because he's in love with the school's plastic skeleton, Beatrice.
• Oomori Tonae in Sayonara o Oshiete, the only person the protagonist trusts enough to tell about his disgusting nightmares. In the Cuckoo Nest reveal in the story's ending, it turns that she is actually one of the doctors on the psychiatric ward he has been committed to.
• Junko-sensei from Three Sisters Story is the only quest-giver of the game, albeit she is unrelated to the main plot.
• In True Love Junai Monogatari, Misako Hayama aka the hot daughter of the school doctor temporarily takes up the position if the Player Character had sex with her beforehand. And yes, he can do her in the infirmary — if he does, she will become his girlfriend at the end of the game.

Webcomics

• Keiko from Zoophobia (though technically she's the school doctor and Chasetopher is the nurse (which inverts the Always Female aspect of this trope).

Western Animation

• The Amazing World of Gumball has one named Joan Markham, who is a band-aid.
• Bob's Burgers: In "Lice Things are Lice", Tina volunteers with her school's nurse, who turns out to be a little unstable when she becomes convinced the students of Wagstaff School have become infested with "super-lice". Then it turns out Nurse Liz made the whole thing up so she'd have something to brag about at her next school reunion.
• The Generic Cuteness of this trope is grossly subverted in South Park, where South Park Elementary's school nurse has a conjoined twin fetus attached to her face.
  • Similarly subverted in the Polish cartoon Włatcy Móch, where the nurse is a serious Gonk. On the other hand, she's the least useless of the adults. It also doesn't seem to impede her sex life.
• At Camp Lazlo, Nurse Leslie, a male shark (nurse shark, get it?) who for some reason never gets off from his chair.
• Code Lyoko: Yolande Perraudin.
• Sheena's Aunt Shelly is P.S. 118's school nurse in Hey Arnold!.
  • In "Rhonda's Glasses," a bit of an aversion to the Hospital Hottie stereotype occurs when Nurse Shelly tries to make Rhonda feel better about her diminished social status:
    Rhonda: Nothing's going to make me feel better when I'm wearing these awful glasses. It's just not fair - I'm the coolest girl in class, I give the best slumber parties, and I have the most stylish and up-to-date clothes!
    Eugene: (to Nurse Shelly) Rhonda is all about style.
    Rhonda: And then overnight, I turn into a geek, and you and Sheena are feeling sorry for me - all because of the horrible glasses? I can't take it!
    Nurse Shelly: Oh, dear, it's a lot of pressure being the coolest girl in class. I know - when I was your age, I was the coolest girl in class...
    Rhonda: (looks up at the glasses-wearing, somewhat matronly Nurse Shelly and screams in horror)
• Nurse Bendy in Moral Orel, who also happens to be the school principal's mistress. She also is sometimes seen working at Moralton's hospital. For a given definition of 'work' anyway.
• My Gym Partner's a Monkey has Nurse Jacqueline Gazelle.
• My Little Pony: Equestria Girls: The Forgotten Friendship special reveals Nurse Redheart's human counterpart working as Canterlot High's school nurse.
• The Oblongs' nurse is a mutant freak with a metal torture device for a hand. Fortunately it dispenses lollipops too!
• The Simpsons: Lunchlady Doris (definitely not a Hospital Hottie) often doubles as nurse at Springfield Elementary.
  • Somewhat lampshaded in that she's usually "promoted" to nurse by Springfield Elementary's recurring budget problems.
  • At Kamp Krusty, the nurse looks like a meaner, uglier of Lunchlady Doris. She smokes as she works and strikes a match on a kid's cast.
• In Swiss-French animation Titeuf, the older boys are a whisper away from puberty and just on the cusp of getting uncomfortable about their school nurse, the improbably endowed "Double-Airbags".^note She was Flanderized in later series with a very visible bust reduction Even at ten or eleven, they manufacture excuses to visit the nurse without quite being fully aware of why.

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