What Do Acute Care Nurses Do (including Their Typical Day At Work)

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. They also perform emergency medical procedures, such as basic cardiac life support (BLS), advanced cardiac life support (ACLS), and other condition-stabilizing interventions.

Other tasks include:

• 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.
• Administer blood and blood product transfusions or intravenous infusions, monitoring patients for adverse reactions.
• Assess urgent and emergent health conditions, using both physiologically and technologically derived data.
• Adjust settings on patients’ assistive devices, such as temporary pacemakers.

We asked Acute Care Nurses how satisfied they are with their job. Here is what they said.

---

74% of them said they were satisfied with their job and 82% said they find that their job makes the world a better place or helps to make someone else’s life better.

Typical Day At Work

On a daily basis, Acute Care Nurses order, perform, or interpret the results of diagnostic tests and screening procedures based on assessment results, differential diagnoses, and knowledge about age, gender and health status of clients. They manage patients’ pain relief and sedation by providing pharmacologic and non-pharmacologic interventions, monitoring patients’ responses, and changing care plans accordingly.

A typical day for an Acute Care Nurse will also include:

• Prescribe medications and observe patients’ reactions, modifying prescriptions as needed.
• Assess the impact of illnesses or injuries on patients’ health, function, growth, development, nutrition, sleep, rest, quality of life, or family, social and educational relationships.
• Perform administrative duties that facilitate admission, transfer, or discharge of patients.
• Analyze the indications, contraindications, risk complications, and cost-benefit tradeoffs of therapeutic interventions.
• Document data related to patients’ care, including assessment results, interventions, medications, patient responses, or treatment changes.

We asked some Acute Care Nurses a few questions to find out what else does their work day look like. Here is what we found.

	Do you have telephone conversations everyday in this job?	100% said yes
	How important is it to work in a team in this job?	81% said very important
	Do you have group discussions everyday in this job?	96% said yes
	Do you talk or work with customers everyday in this job?	70% said yes
	Do you have to deal with angry customers everyday in this job?	26% said yes
	Do you have to make decisions everyday in this job?	81% said yes

Other responsibilities

Besides their typical day, Acute Care Nurses also read current literature, talk with colleagues, and participate in professional organizations or conferences to keep abreast of developments in acute care. They may also treat wounds or superficial lacerations.

On a weekly to monthly basis, Acute Care Nurses Participate in patients’ care meetings and conferences. They might also Perform emergency medical procedures, such as basic cardiac life support (BLS), advanced cardiac life support (ACLS), and other condition-stabilizing interventions.

In addition, they Provide formal and informal education to other staff members.

Although specific duties may vary, many of them Assist patients in organizing their health care system activities.

To some Acute Care Nurses, it is also their responsibility to Administer blood and blood product transfusions or intravenous infusions, monitoring patients for adverse reactions.

Working life

Standard 40 hour work week

Regular schedule like a 9 to 5

In a typical work week as an Acute Care Nurse, you can expect to work 40 hour work week.

Is this right for me

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.

You can read more about these career personality types here.

Explore other careers

http://www.bls.gov/OOH/healthcare/registered-nurses.htm

http://www.nursingworld.org/

http://www.asrn.org/

https://www.discovernursing.com/