Do/did you write emails as part of your work? If so, for what?

emails are not a normal part of my current job, but I have worked in certain administrative positions where emails have become important. With the advent of computerized charting, I believe that some healthcare organizations will try to use email to disperse information throughout the organization. So it's a skill that nurses need to develop.

Do/did you have to write notes? What about?

Most nurses write notes(charting) about the care they provide to their patients. Nurses need to be able to describe a patient's condition and what actions were taken to care for this patient. They need to be able to diagnose and write a plan of care. Concise, clear English is essential for all of this.

What other kinds of texts do/did you have to write (e.g. reports)?

Depends on the job, but administrative jobs include writing budgets, and policies and procedures.

Do/did you have to leave written information for the person replacing you on the next shift? If so, what form would that take?

Any change of shift reports I've ever used were pretty simple documents. Just a table with the patient's room number, name, and a short summary of why they are here and what we are doing for them.

Letters? What for?
The common business letters: Memos, resumes, thank you's, resignation letters.

Any other (fairly simple) kinds of writing you do/did as a student or junior nurse?

Lots of nursing classes emphasize the ability to write "reflective" essays. For example:

What is nursing's obligation to society?
What values or beliefs underline the practice of professional nursing (What do nurses care about and/or believe to be true about health, the environment, wellness, health promotion, healing, etc)
What are the critical issues facing the nursing profession?
What are the personal qualities, characteristics, or competencies necessary for nursing?

There are also pretty standard English comp topics. For example, I may need to research a problem or disease, and come up with various solutions. I need to compare the solutions, critique them, and choose a solution.

Really, just about anything you teach in an English Comp class translates well into nursing papers. Whenever I have had to write papers, I always followed along with the basic suggestions from an English comp book.

I would also recommend: Mastering APA Style: Student's Workbook and Training Guide (Spiral-bound), since most nursing papers are written in this format.

My other favorite book on writing is called On Writing Well

For me, writing nursing is not easy. Although I like to write, I like something simpler.