Nadat de verpleegkundige mijn elleboog had bekeken, zei ze dat ik mijn arm rustig moest houden.

Nadat means after.

It introduces a subordinate clause: Nadat de verpleegkundige mijn elleboog had bekeken

In Dutch, subordinate clauses usually send the conjugated verb to the end, which is why you get:

• had bekeken instead of something like bekeek had.

So the structure is:

• Nadat
  • subject + rest of clause + verb(s) at the end

That whole opening clause means After the nurse had examined my elbow.

Had bekeken is the past perfect (pluperfect), like English had examined.

It is used because this action happened before the next past action:

1. first, the nurse examined the elbow
2. then, she said something

So:

• had bekeken = had examined / had looked at
• zei = said

Dutch uses the same tense logic here as English:

• After she had examined my elbow, she said...

You could sometimes see a simple past in informal speech, but had bekeken is the clearest and most standard choice when one past action happened before another.

Literally, bekijken often means to look at, but in medical contexts it usually means something more like:

• examine
• inspect
• check

So here mijn elleboog had bekeken does not just mean the nurse casually looked at your elbow. It suggests she examined it professionally.

Also, bekeken is the past participle of bekijken.

A useful detail:

• kijken = to look
• bekijken = to look at / examine / inspect

Good question. Many Dutch past participles do have ge-, but verbs with an inseparable prefix usually do not.

Here the verb is:

• bekijken

The prefix be- is inseparable, so the past participle is:

• bekeken not gebekeken

Compare:

• kijken → gekeken
• bekijken → bekeken

This is a very common pattern in Dutch.

Because the sentence begins with the subordinate clause: Nadat de verpleegkundige mijn elleboog had bekeken

When a Dutch main clause starts with something other than the subject, Dutch uses inversion: the verb comes before the subject.

So the main clause becomes:

• zei ze dat...

not:

• ze zei dat...

This is the normal Dutch verb-second rule.

Compare:

• Ze zei dat... = She said that...
• Gisteren zei ze dat... = Yesterday she said that...
• Nadat ..., zei ze dat... = After ..., she said that...

In all of these, the finite verb stays in the second position of the main clause.

Ze is the unstressed form of she/they, and it is very common in normal speech and writing.

• ze = neutral, unstressed
• zij = stressed or emphatic

So here:

• zei ze = normal, natural Dutch

You would use zij if you wanted emphasis, for example:

• Zij zei dat, niet de dokter. = She said that, not the doctor.

So in this sentence, ze is exactly what you would expect.

Verpleegkundige is the standard modern word for nurse.

It is:

• common
• professional
• gender-neutral in form

Verpleegster is an older word for a female nurse. You may still hear it, but verpleegkundige is more neutral and more standard in many contexts.

So if you are learning Dutch for current everyday use, verpleegkundige is the safer choice.

This is a reported speech structure:

• zei ze dat... = she said that...

After dat, you get another subordinate clause, so the verbs move toward the end again:

• dat ik mijn arm rustig moest houden

The core structure is:

• ik moest mijn arm rustig houden = I had to keep my arm still/rest it

But after dat, it becomes:

• dat ik mijn arm rustig moest houden

So the word order is different because dat creates a subordinate clause.

Because in a subordinate clause with a modal verb, Dutch typically places the verb group at the end.

Here:

• moest = had to
• houden = keep

So:

• dat ik mijn arm rustig moest houden

This is very normal Dutch word order.

In a main clause, you would usually get:

• Ik moest mijn arm rustig houden.

In the subordinate clause after dat, the verbs go to the end:

• ...dat ik mijn arm rustig moest houden.

Not exactly. Rustig houden can literally mean keep calm/quiet, but with a body part it usually means:

• rest
• don’t strain it
• keep it still
• take it easy with it

So mijn arm rustig houden means something like:

• keep my arm rested
• avoid using my arm too much
• take it easy with my arm

In medical advice, this is very natural Dutch.

Yes, but the meaning changes a bit.

• stil houden = keep still, don’t move it
• rustig houden = rest it, take it easy, don’t overuse it

With an injury, rustig houden often sounds more like medical advice over a longer period. Stil houden can sound more immediate or physical, as in:

• Houd je arm stil. = Keep your arm still.

So in this sentence, rustig houden is a good choice because it suggests letting the arm recover.

Very often, yes. Dutch commonly uses possessives with body parts, especially when it is important whose body part it is.

So:

• mijn elleboog = my elbow
• mijn arm = my arm

Sometimes Dutch can use an article instead in certain expressions, but with injuries, treatment, and personal physical experience, the possessive is very natural.

In this sentence, using mijn twice sounds completely normal.

Yes. Moeten means must / have to, and moest is its past tense.

So:

• ik moet mijn arm rustig houden = I have to / must keep my arm rested
• ik moest mijn arm rustig houden = I had to keep my arm rested

In this sentence, the reporting verb is in the past:

• zei ze = she said

So Dutch naturally uses:

• dat ik mijn arm rustig moest houden

This matches English well:

• she said that I had to keep my arm rested

A rough English-friendly guide:

• verpleegkundige ≈ fur-PLAKE-kun-duh-guh
• elleboog ≈ EL-uh-bohk

A few notes:

• ee in pleeg is a long vowel, somewhat like the vowel in day, but not exactly the same.
• g in Dutch is often a throaty sound, especially in the Netherlands.
• boog has a long oo sound, like a long o.

If pronunciation is important for you, these are good words to listen to from native audio, because spelling alone does not fully show the sounds.

Yes. A few natural alternatives are possible, for example:

• Nadat de verpleegkundige naar mijn elleboog had gekeken, zei ze dat ik mijn arm rustig moest houden.
• Toen de verpleegkundige mijn elleboog had bekeken, zei ze dat ik mijn arm rustig moest houden.

But the original sentence is very natural and clear.

A small nuance:

• bekeken sounds a bit more like examined
• naar ... gekeken sounds more literally like looked at

So the original version works especially well in a medical setting.