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.

• 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.