Acute Care Nurses
People classed as Acute Care Nurses provide advanced nursing care for patients with acute conditions such as heart attacks, respiratory distress syndrome, or shock. The skills rated most useful are speaking, service orientation, and reading comprehension. Expect to discuss illnesses and treatments with patients and family members. Interest ratings put Social on top at 5.8 out of 7 and Investigative second, so the code is SIR and the day leans toward helping, teaching or caring for people. Getting in usually takes a bachelor’s degree plus a period of work experience, a level O*NET calls considerable preparation. People who want helping, teaching or caring for people usually fit better here than those who need creative work with room for original expression.
What they do
Provide advanced nursing care for patients with acute conditions such as heart attacks, respiratory distress syndrome, or shock. May care for pre- and post-operative patients or perform advanced, invasive diagnostic or therapeutic procedures.
Main tasks
- Discuss illnesses and treatments with patients and family members.
- Diagnose acute or chronic conditions that could result in rapid physiological deterioration or life-threatening instability.
- Perform emergency medical procedures, such as basic cardiac life support (BLS), advanced cardiac life support (ACLS), and other condition-stabilizing interventions.
- Assess urgent and emergent health conditions, using both physiologically and technologically derived data.
- Set up, operate, or monitor invasive equipment and devices, such as colostomy or tracheotomy equipment, mechanical ventilators, catheters, gastrointestinal tubes, and central lines.
- Document data related to patients' care, including assessment results, interventions, medications, patient responses, or treatment changes.
Skills
- Speaking
- Service Orientation
- Reading Comprehension
- Critical Thinking
- Writing
- Social Perceptiveness
Who this career fits
May suit you if
- You get energy from helping other people move forward.
- You enjoy working out why something happens, not just what happened.
- You are ready to spend around four years on a degree, then build experience.
- You are comfortable relying on speaking and service orientation.
May not suit you if
- You find a full day of dealing with people draining.
- You need creative expression to be a big part of your day. Artistic rates 1.8 out of 7 here.
- You want to avoid a four-year degree or its equivalent.
Interest profile
O*NET rates each occupation from 1 to 7 on six interest types. The code SIR takes the three highest, and Social comes first here.
Preparation
Considerable preparation. Most jobs here ask for a bachelor’s degree, and employers usually expect a few years of related experience as well.
Most-reported requirement in the O*NET survey: Bachelor's Degree. This reflects what workers reported most often and is not a legal minimum. Licensing rules can differ by state or industry, so confirm what applies where you plan to work.
Also called
- Acute Care Nurse
- Cardiac Interventional Care Nurse
- Cardiovascular ICU Nurse (Cardiovascular Intense Care Unit Nurse)
- Cardiovascular Surgery Acute Care Nurse Practitioner (Cardiovascular Surgery ACNP)
- Charge Nurse
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This page includes information from the O*NET 31.0 Database by the U.S. Department of Labor, Employment and Training Administration (USDOL/ETA). Used under the CC BY 4.0 license. O*NET® is a trademark of USDOL/ETA.