"a doctor and nurse"?

Hello,everyone

I saw a grammar rule in my grammars books (not only one book) and I have some doubt about it.

Normally, we say:

We sent for a doctor and a nurse.

But my grammars books say this will have the same meaning as the above one:

We sent for a doctor and nurse.

My books say "a doctor and nurse" can mean "a doctor and a nurse", because "doctor" and "nurse" are two quite different nouns, there's no doubt recognizing them as "two people"; however, those books are kind of old (published in 1980s), so I don't know if people still use this expression today.

In my opinion, "a doctor and nurse" could mean "a doctor who also serves as a nurse", just like "a black and white cat" means "a cat which has black and white fur", am I right?

Would you please give me your opinion about my question? Thank you very much!

In my opinion, "a doctor and nurse" could mean "a doctor who also serves as a nurse", just like "a black and white cat" means "a cat which has black and white fur", am I right?

First, your examples are not similar -- "A doctor and nurse" contains two nouns, while "a black and white cat" has a single noun modified by two adjectives.

More to the point -- I don't think any native speaker would interpret either "a doctor and nurse" or "a doctor and a nurse" to mean "a doctor who also serves as a nurse."  If that's what you wanted to express, you would need some clarifying word such as "both" -- "He acted as both a doctor and a nurse", "She was trained as a doctor and also as a nurse" -- and, as you see, in both of these examples I have used "a" before each noun.

I agree with Philip that "a doctor and a nurse" sounds better than "a doctor and nurse," but I wouldn't call the version with only one "a" wrong.  In various possible pairs of nouns, I think if you leave out the second "a" it suggests that the two nouns form a set or are usually together or related in some way.  For example,  I would say

"I put on a hat and coat," but not "I put on a hat and swimsuit" 

"A mother and child entered the room" but not "a mother and electrician entered the room"

"Please put a knife and fork at each place" but not "please put a knife and menu at each place"

So, whether or not I would be likely to say "a doctor and nurse" entered the room might depend on whether I thought they were working together, or just happened to be there at the same time.