She is our tyrannical head nurse of the mental institution. Also cold and heartless, she does not hesitate when it comes to restricte her patients' access to medication or even human basic necessities if it suits her whims. She has an informnant, Billy Bibbit, who is very terrified of her and does whatever she says. This show us the nature of the Big Nurse and the perception of the patients that have on her.
But her dictatorial rule is nearly toppled when McMurphy arrives, and the two of them can't stand each other. She tries everything to stop the behavior of McMurphy, using threats, mild punishment and at one point, shock therapy, but are not sucessful.
Nurse Ratched can be seen as a metaphor of the corrupting influence of power and authority in bureaucracies such as the mental institution in which the novel is set.
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