Acute Care Nurses

At a glance

Description 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.

Alternate titles
  • 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
  • DSU Nurse (Day Surgery Unit Nurse)
  • MSN (Medical Surgical Nurse)
  • PCU RN (Progressive Care Unit Registered Nurse)
  • Staff Nurse
  • Vascular Access Registered Nurse (Vascular Access RN)
Salaire horaire moyen $38.41 - $48.78 ($79,890 - $101,460 annually)*
Nombre total annuel d'ouverturesNo data available
Nombre total d'employésNo data available

A day in the life

  • Communicate detailed medical information to patients or family members.
  • Order medical diagnostic or clinical tests.
  • Collaborate with healthcare professionals to plan or provide treatment.
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  • Train medical providers.
  • Prepare medical supplies or equipment for use.
  • Record patient medical histories.
  • Analyze test data or images to inform diagnosis or treatment.
  • Communicate detailed medical information to patients or family members.
  • Monitor patients following surgeries or other treatments.
  • Process healthcare paperwork.
  • Diagnose medical conditions.
  • Prescribe medications.
  • Collect biological specimens from patients.
  • Operate diagnostic or therapeutic medical instruments or equipment.
  • Collaborate with healthcare professionals to plan or provide treatment.
  • Treat medical emergencies.
  • Evaluate patient functioning, capabilities, or health.
  • Analyze test data or images to inform diagnosis or treatment.
  • Refer patients to other healthcare practitioners or health resources.
  • Evaluate treatment options to guide medical decisions.
  • Monitor patient progress or responses to treatments.
  • Adjust prostheses or other assistive devices.
  • Monitor patient conditions during treatments, procedures, or activities.
  • Administer blood or other fluids intravenously.
  • Assess patient work, living, or social environments.
  • Treat acute illnesses, infections, or injuries.
  • Maintain medical or professional knowledge.
  • Analyze patient data to determine patient needs or treatment goals.
  • Advise patients on healthcare system processes.
  • Establish nursing policies or standards.
  • Administer anesthetics or sedatives to control pain.
  • Diagnose medical conditions.
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  • Social: Helping, teaching, advising, assisting, or providing service to others.
  • Investigative: Studying and researching scientific subjects and human behavior.
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  • Collaborate with patients to plan for future health care needs or to coordinate transitions and referrals.
  • 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.
  • Collaborate with members of multidisciplinary health care teams to plan, manage, or assess patient treatments.
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  • Provide formal and informal education to other staff members.
  • 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.
  • 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.
  • Discuss illnesses and treatments with patients and family members.
  • Manage patients' pain relief and sedation by providing pharmacologic and non-pharmacologic interventions, monitoring patients' responses, and changing care plans accordingly.
  • Perform administrative duties that facilitate admission, transfer, or discharge of patients.
  • Distinguish between normal and abnormal developmental and age-related physiological and behavioral changes in acute, critical, and chronic illness.
  • Prescribe medications and observe patients' reactions, modifying prescriptions as needed.
  • Obtain specimens or samples for laboratory work.
  • Set up, operate, or monitor invasive equipment and devices, such as colostomy or tracheotomy equipment, mechanical ventilators, catheters, gastrointestinal tubes, and central lines.
  • Participate in patients' care meetings and conferences.
  • Perform emergency medical procedures, such as basic cardiac life support (BLS), advanced cardiac life support (ACLS), and other condition-stabilizing interventions.
  • 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.
  • Interpret information obtained from electrocardiograms (EKGs) or radiographs (x-rays).
  • Refer patients for specialty consultations or treatments.
  • Analyze the indications, contraindications, risk complications, and cost-benefit tradeoffs of therapeutic interventions.
  • Prescribe medications and observe patients' reactions, modifying prescriptions as needed.
  • Adjust settings on patients' assistive devices, such as temporary pacemakers.
  • Administer blood and blood product transfusions or intravenous infusions, monitoring patients for adverse reactions.
  • Administer blood and blood product transfusions or intravenous infusions, monitoring patients for adverse reactions.
  • Assess the needs of patients' family members or caregivers.
  • Treat wounds or superficial lacerations.
  • Read current literature, talk with colleagues, and participate in professional organizations or conferences to keep abreast of developments in acute care.
  • Assess urgent and emergent health conditions, using both physiologically and technologically derived data.
  • Assist patients in organizing their health care system activities.
  • Participate in the development of practice protocols.
  • Manage patients' pain relief and sedation by providing pharmacologic and non-pharmacologic interventions, monitoring patients' responses, and changing care plans accordingly.
  • Diagnose acute or chronic conditions that could result in rapid physiological deterioration or life-threatening instability.
  • Medicine and Dentistry: Knowledge of the information and techniques needed to diagnose and treat human injuries, diseases, and deformities. This includes symptoms, treatment alternatives, drug properties and interactions, and preventive health-care measures.
  • Customer and Personal Service: Knowledge of principles and processes for providing customer and personal services. This includes customer needs assessment, meeting quality standards for services, and evaluation of customer satisfaction.
  • Education and Training: Knowledge of principles and methods for curriculum and training design, teaching and instruction for individuals and groups, and the measurement of training effects.
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  • English Language: Knowledge of the structure and content of the English language including the meaning and spelling of words, and rules of composition and grammar.
  • Psychology: Knowledge of human behavior and performance; individual differences in ability, personality, and interests; learning and motivation; psychological research methods; and the assessment and treatment of behavioral and affective disorders.
  • Therapy and Counseling: Knowledge of principles, methods, and procedures for diagnosis, treatment, and rehabilitation of physical and mental dysfunctions, and for career counseling and guidance.
  • Administration and Management: Knowledge of business and management principles involved in strategic planning, resource allocation, human resources modeling, leadership technique, production methods, and coordination of people and resources.
  • Public Safety and Security: Knowledge of relevant equipment, policies, procedures, and strategies to promote effective local, state, or national security operations for the protection of people, data, property, and institutions.
  • Biology: Knowledge of plant and animal organisms, their tissues, cells, functions, interdependencies, and interactions with each other and the environment.
  • Mathematics: Knowledge of arithmetic, algebra, geometry, calculus, statistics, and their applications.
  • Computers and Electronics: Knowledge of circuit boards, processors, chips, electronic equipment, and computer hardware and software, including applications and programming.
  • Administrative: Knowledge of administrative and office procedures and systems such as word processing, managing files and records, stenography and transcription, designing forms, and workplace terminology.
  • Sociology and Anthropology: Knowledge of group behavior and dynamics, societal trends and influences, human migrations, ethnicity, cultures, and their history and origins.
  • Chemistry: Knowledge of the chemical composition, structure, and properties of substances and of the chemical processes and transformations that they undergo. This includes uses of chemicals and their interactions, danger signs, production techniques, and disposal methods.
  • Law and Government: Knowledge of laws, legal codes, court procedures, precedents, government regulations, executive orders, agency rules, and the democratic political process.
  • Telecommunications: Knowledge of transmission, broadcasting, switching, control, and operation of telecommunications systems.
  • Communications and Media: Knowledge of media production, communication, and dissemination techniques and methods. This includes alternative ways to inform and entertain via written, oral, and visual media.
  • Personnel and Human Resources: Knowledge of principles and procedures for personnel recruitment, selection, training, compensation and benefits, labor relations and negotiation, and personnel information systems.
  • Philosophy and Theology: Knowledge of different philosophical systems and religions. This includes their basic principles, values, ethics, ways of thinking, customs, practices, and their impact on human culture.
  • Foreign Language: Knowledge of the structure and content of a foreign (non-English) language including the meaning and spelling of words, rules of composition and grammar, and pronunciation.
  • Production and Processing: Knowledge of raw materials, production processes, quality control, costs, and other techniques for maximizing the effective manufacture and distribution of goods.
  • Physics: Knowledge and prediction of physical principles, laws, their interrelationships, and applications to understanding fluid, material, and atmospheric dynamics, and mechanical, electrical, atomic and sub-atomic structures and processes.
  • Mechanical: Knowledge of machines and tools, including their designs, uses, repair, and maintenance.
  • Economics and Accounting: Knowledge of economic and accounting principles and practices, the financial markets, banking, and the analysis and reporting of financial data.
  • Engineering and Technology: Knowledge of the practical application of engineering science and technology. This includes applying principles, techniques, procedures, and equipment to the design and production of various goods and services.
  • Transportation: Knowledge of principles and methods for moving people or goods by air, rail, sea, or road, including the relative costs and benefits.
  • Geography: Knowledge of principles and methods for describing the features of land, sea, and air masses, including their physical characteristics, locations, interrelationships, and distribution of plant, animal, and human life.
  • Design: Knowledge of design techniques, tools, and principles involved in production of precision technical plans, blueprints, drawings, and models.
  • Sales and Marketing: Knowledge of principles and methods for showing, promoting, and selling products or services. This includes marketing strategy and tactics, product demonstration, sales techniques, and sales control systems.
  • History and Archeology: Knowledge of historical events and their causes, indicators, and effects on civilizations and cultures.
  • Building and Construction: Knowledge of materials, methods, and the tools involved in the construction or repair of houses, buildings, or other structures such as highways and roads.
  • Food Production: Knowledge of techniques and equipment for planting, growing, and harvesting food products (both plant and animal) for consumption, including storage/handling techniques.
  • Fine Arts: Knowledge of the theory and techniques required to compose, produce, and perform works of music, dance, visual arts, drama, and sculpture.
  • Oral Comprehension: Listening and understanding what people say.
  • Oral Expression: Communicating by speaking.
  • Written Comprehension: Reading and understanding what is written.
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  • Problem Sensitivity: Noticing when problems happen.
  • Deductive Reasoning: Using rules to solve problems.
  • Inductive Reasoning: Making general rules or coming up with answers from lots of detailed information.
  • Information Ordering: Ordering or arranging things.
  • Near Vision: Seeing details up close.
  • Speech Recognition: Recognizing spoken words.
  • Written Expression: Communicating by writing.
  • Speech Clarity: Speaking clearly.
  • Category Flexibility: Grouping things in different ways.
  • Selective Attention: Paying attention to something without being distracted.
  • Flexibility of Closure: Seeing hidden patterns.
  • Fluency of Ideas: Coming up with lots of ideas.
  • Speed of Closure: Quickly knowing what you are looking at.
  • Perceptual Speed: Quickly comparing groups of letters, numbers, pictures, or other things.
  • Memorization: Remembering words, numbers, pictures, or steps.
  • Mathematical Reasoning: Choosing the right type of math to solve a problem.
  • Visual Color Discrimination: Noticing the difference between colors, including shades and brightness.
  • Originality: Creating new and original ideas.
  • Time Sharing: Doing two or more things at the same time.
  • Far Vision: Seeing details that are far away.
  • Visualization: Imagining how something will look after it is moved around or changed.
  • Auditory Attention: Paying attention to one sound while there are other distracting sounds.
  • Finger Dexterity: Putting together small parts with your fingers.
  • Hearing Sensitivity: Telling the difference between sounds.
  • Number Facility: Adding, subtracting, multiplying, or dividing.
  • Stamina: Exercising for a long time without getting out of breath.
  • Trunk Strength: Using your lower back and stomach.
  • Arm-Hand Steadiness: Keeping your arm or hand steady.
  • Control Precision: Quickly changing the controls of a machine, car, truck or boat.
  • Reaction Time: Quickly moving your hand, finger, or foot based on a sound, light, picture or other command.
  • Static Strength: Lifting, pushing, pulling, or carrying.
  • Extent Flexibility: Bending, stretching, twisting, or reaching with your body, arms, and/or legs.
  • Multilimb Coordination: Using your arms and/or legs together while sitting, standing, or lying down.
  • Response Orientation: Quickly deciding if you should move your hand, foot, or other body part.
  • Dynamic Strength: Exercising for a long time without your muscles getting tired.
  • Gross Body Equilibrium: Keeping your balance or staying upright.
  • Gross Body Coordination: Moving your arms, legs, and mid-section together while your whole body is moving.
  • Depth Perception: Deciding which thing is closer or farther away from you, or deciding how far away it is from you.
  • Wrist-Finger Speed: Making fast, simple, repeated movements of your fingers, hands, and wrists.
  • Explosive Strength: Jumping, sprinting, or throwing something.
  • Manual Dexterity: Holding or moving items with your hands.
  • Rate Control: Changing when and how fast you move based on how something else is moving.
  • Speed of Limb Movement: Quickly moving your arms and legs.
  • Dynamic Flexibility: Quickly and repeatedly bending, stretching, twisting, or reaching out with your body, arms, and/or legs.
  • Sound Localization: Noticing the direction that a sound came from.
  • Spatial Orientation: Knowing where things are around you.
  • Peripheral Vision: Seeing something to your side when your are looking ahead.
  • Glare Sensitivity: Seeing something even if there is a glare or very bright light.
  • Night Vision: Seeing at night or under low light.
  • Service Orientation: Looking for ways to help people.
  • Reading Comprehension: Reading work-related information.
  • Speaking: Talking to others.
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  • Critical Thinking: Thinking about the pros and cons of different ways to solve a problem.
  • Writing: Writing things for co-workers or customers.
  • Active Learning: Figuring out how to use new ideas or things.
  • Monitoring: Keeping track of how well people and/or groups are doing in order to make improvements.
  • Active Listening: Listening to others, not interrupting, and asking good questions.
  • Social Perceptiveness: Understanding people's reactions.
  • Judgment and Decision Making: Thinking about the pros and cons of different options and picking the best one.
  • Coordination: Changing what is done based on other people's actions.
  • Complex Problem Solving: Noticing a problem and figuring out the best way to solve it.
  • Time Management: Managing your time and the time of other people.
  • Instructing: Teaching people how to do something.
  • Learning Strategies: Using the best training or teaching strategies for learning new things.
  • Systems Evaluation: Measuring how well a system is working and how to improve it.
  • Persuasion: Talking people into changing their minds or their behavior.
  • Management of Personnel Resources: Selecting and managing the best workers for a job.
  • Operations Monitoring: Watching gauges, dials, or display screens to make sure a machine is working.
  • Mathematics: Using math to solve problems.
  • Science: Using scientific rules and strategies to solve problems.
  • Negotiation: Bringing people together to solve differences.
  • Systems Analysis: Figuring out how a system should work and how changes in the future will affect it.
  • Operation and Control: Using equipment or systems.
  • Quality Control Analysis: Testing how well a product or service works.
  • Operations Analysis: Figuring out what a product or service needs to be able to do.
  • Equipment Selection: Deciding what kind of tools and equipment are needed to do a job.
  • Troubleshooting: Figuring out what is causing equipment, machines, wiring, or computer programs to not work.
  • Management of Material Resources: Managing equipment and materials.
  • Management of Financial Resources: Making spending decisions and keeping track of what is spent.
  • Technology Design: Making equipment and technology useful for customers.
  • Programming: Writing computer programs.
  • Installation: Installing equipment, machines, wiring, or computer programs.
  • Equipment Maintenance: Planning and doing the basic maintenance on equipment.
  • Repairing: Repairing machines or systems using the right tools.

Education & Training

Education Bachelor's degree

Licensing Some professions require a specific license to work in Maine. For information on any licensing requirements for this and other occupations, visit the Maine Office of Professional and Financial Regulation.

Training No on-the-job training

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Regional Occupation Data

Data provided by CWRI
Total number employed No data available
Average annual wage* $79,890 - $101,460
Annual total openings No data available
Average hourly wage* $38.41 - $48.78

Les détails de la description de poste et les données salariales et de demande pour cette profession sont fournis par CWRI, ONET, et Career Onestop.

Formations connexes

    1. University of New England
    Training Type à long terme
    Biddeford
    En personne