Wrapped in cotton wool, American was rude to nurses (9)
I believe the answer is:
insulated
'wrapped' is the definition.
Although both the answer and definition are past participle verbs, I cannot see how they can define each other.
'in cotton wool american was rude to nurses' is the wordplay.
I cannot really see how this works, but
'in' is within the answer.
'american' could be 'a' (common abbreviation - e.g. in organisation names) and 'a' is found in the answer.
This may be the basis of the clue (or it may be nonsense).
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for insulated that I've seen before include "cut off from elsewhere?" , "liable to be shocking? On the contrary" , "Protected" .)