Idle surgeon worried nurses for instance (8)
I believe the answer is:
vegetate
'idle' is the definition.
(thesaurus)
'surgeon worried nurses for instance' is the wordplay.
'surgeon' becomes 'vet' (I've seen this in other clues).
'worried' becomes 'ate' (something worrying may eat someone up).
'nurses' means one lot of letters goes inside another (nurse can mean to hold onto or harbour).
'for instance' becomes 'eg' (synonyms).
'vet'+'ate'='vetate'
'vetate' going around 'eg' is 'VEGETATE'.
(Other definitions for vegetate that I've seen before include "appears to be inert" , "Live uneventful life, stagnate" , "Live a dull inactive life" , "Lead a dull and inactive life" , "Do very little" .)