Acute Care Nurses
Acute Care Nurses 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.
Table of Contents
Job description
Acute Care Nurses 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.
- Perform emergency medical procedures, such as basic cardiac life support (BLS), advanced cardiac life support (ACLS), and other condition-stabilizing interventions.
- Manage patients’ pain relief and sedation by providing pharmacologic and non-pharmacologic interventions, monitoring patients’ responses, and changing care plans accordingly.
- Document data related to patients’ care, including assessment results, interventions, medications, patient responses, or treatment changes.
- Diagnose acute or chronic conditions that could result in rapid physiological deterioration or life-threatening instability.
Salary
Acute Care Nurses with little to no experience tend to make between $50800 and $58770 while the more experienced ones can earn over $88350 per year.
Top 5 paying states | Hourly | Annual |
---|---|---|
CA | $51 | $106,950 |
HI | $47 | $98,080 |
DC | $44 | $92,350 |
MA | $44 | $92,140 |
OR | $44 | $91,080 |
One of the easiest ways to increase your salary as an Acute Care Nurse is to move to a higher paying state like CA. Right now, the highest paying states for Acute Care Nurses are CA, HI, DC, MA and OR.
However, a higher pay at CA doesn’t guarantee that you will make more because the living expenses at CA might be twice as high than where you are currently at now.
Three other factors that can increase your salary as an Acute Care Nurse is the degree you hold, the industry you work in, and lastly the company you work for.
Requirements
We asked other Acute Care Nurses what degree they had when they got the job and most of them said they had an Associate’s Degree followed by a Bachelor’s Degree.
Other than that, we also asked them what did they major in and here are the most popular majors that came up.
Registered Nursing/Registered Nurse |
Nursing Administration |
Adult Health Nurse/Nursing |
Family Practice Nurse/Nursing |
Maternal/Child Health and Neonatal Nurse/Nursing |
Pros and Cons
Here are some of the pros and cons of being an Acute Care Nurse.
PROS |
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Suitable for people who likes to help and teach others |
Suitable for people who values relationships between co-workers and customers and wants to work in a friendly non-competitive environment |
This career is perfect for people who love to work indoors. |
It is not too difficult to get into this career. Previous work-related skill, knowledge, or experience is required for this career. |
Normal working hours (40 hours per week) |
CONS |
---|
Not suitable for people who likes to follow routines |
What is the job like
74% of Acute Care Nurses said they were satisfied with their job and 82% said they feel like their job is making other people’s lives better.
Is this right for me
You can read more about these career personality types here.
People who are suitable for this job tends to like working with, communicating with, and teaching people. They like helping or providing service to others..
They also like working with ideas, and require an extensive amount of thinking. They like searching for facts and figuring out problems mentally.
Learn more about Acute Care Nurses
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Related career information
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