What is the importance of having concrete knowledge of speed and velocity in the nursing profession?

To understand the difference between these cases:
a. head-on collision at 10 km/h
b. head-on collision at 100 km/h
c. sideway collision at 50 km/h
d. sideway collision at 150 km/h

If you know about speed, velocity and most important kinetic energy (proportional to the square of the speed) you understand that in cases b and d, your services are not required while they are crucial for cases a and c.

To show you can do math.

In case you get a patient who crashes into a concrete wall at great velocity whilst high on speed.

Sorry, couldn't resist.

Actually I can't see why a nurse would need to have concrete knowledge of the difference between speed (a scalar measure) and velocity (a vector measure).

To test our ability to keep sane no matter what they do to us during nursing school???

I hear this complaint from my students all the time. (I am a college physics instructor with many pre-med, pre-vet and excersize science majors in my classes.) The short answer is that you are correct: people in the medical profession usually don't need to know about bouncing balls and canons and blocks slipping down inclinded planes, let alone speed and velocity.

But, and this is a big but, they do need to know about mass, force, torque (and angular motion), light, sound, and radiation. Having an understanding of these concepts is important when you see patients with broken bones, vision problems, hearing problems, burns, cancer and a whole slew of ailments. Learning about speed and velocity provides a background for the "useful" information.

practicing physics problems hones your problems solving skills like assessing variables that are known and unknown and understanding a problem from context, making diagrams, and using relationships. These are very important skills for the medical professional.