Learn Swedish: Sjuksköterskan kontrollerar blodtrycket före narkosen. - The nurse checks the blood pressure before the anesthesia.

In strict prescriptive Swedish grammar, före is a preposition used directly before a noun phrase like narkosen (the anesthesia). Innan is a conjunction used before a full clause containing a subject and a verb (e.g., innan patienten sövs, meaning 'before the patient is put to sleep'). While native speakers often use innan for both in casual speech, före is the formally correct choice before a noun.

Could I use kollar instead of kontrollerar for 'checks'?

You could in everyday conversation, but kontrollerar is the better choice here. It implies a formal, professional, or clinical verification, which perfectly fits a medical setting. Kollar is colloquial and sounds a bit too casual for a nurse performing a medical procedure.

Why are blodtrycket and narkosen in the definite form? English might just say 'checks blood pressure before anesthesia'.

Swedish uses the definite form more broadly than English, especially for specific instances of medical or routine concepts. Because the sentence describes a specific patient's blood pressure and a specific, scheduled anesthesia event, Swedish naturally requires the definite suffixes -et and -en.

The word sjuksköterskan has the suffix -ska, which usually implies a female. Is this word only used for female nurses?