Acute Care Nurses

Key Responsibilities

• Diagnose acute or chronic conditions that could result in rapid physiological deterioration or life-threatening instability.
• 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.
• Manage patients' pain relief and sedation by providing pharmacologic and non-pharmacologic interventions, monitoring patients' responses, and changing care plans accordingly.
• Assess urgent and emergent health conditions, using both physiologically and technologically derived data.
• Prescribe medications and observe patients' reactions, modifying prescriptions as needed.
• Refer patients for specialty consultations or treatments.
• Assess the needs of patients' family members or caregivers.
• Interpret information obtained from electrocardiograms (EKGs) or radiographs (x-rays).
• Perform emergency medical procedures, such as basic cardiac life support (BLS), advanced cardiac life support (ACLS), and other condition-stabilizing interventions.
• Adjust settings on patients' assistive devices, such as temporary pacemakers.
• Set up, operate, or monitor invasive equipment and devices, such as colostomy or tracheotomy equipment, mechanical ventilators, catheters, gastrointestinal tubes, and central lines.
• Distinguish between normal and abnormal developmental and age-related physiological and behavioral changes in acute, critical, and chronic illness.
• Collaborate with members of multidisciplinary health care teams to plan, manage, or assess patient treatments.
• Analyze the indications, contraindications, risk complications, and cost-benefit tradeoffs of therapeutic interventions.
• Assist patients in organizing their health care system activities.
• Document data related to patients' care, including assessment results, interventions, medications, patient responses, or treatment changes.
• Discuss illnesses and treatments with patients and family members.
• Provide formal and informal education to other staff members.
• Collaborate with patients to plan for future health care needs or to coordinate transitions and referrals.
• Perform administrative duties that facilitate admission, transfer, or discharge of patients.
• Treat wounds or superficial lacerations.
• Participate in the development of practice protocols.
• 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.
• Read current literature, talk with colleagues, and participate in professional organizations or conferences to keep abreast of developments in acute care.
• Participate in patients' care meetings and conferences.
• Obtain specimens or samples for laboratory work.
• Administer blood and blood product transfusions or intravenous infusions, monitoring patients for adverse reactions.