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.

Sample of reported job titles:
Cardiac Interventional Care Nurse, Charge Nurse, Preceptor, Progressive Care Unit RN (Progressive Care Unit Registered Nurse), Staff Nurse

Occupation-Specific Information

Tasks

  • Analyze the indications, contraindications, risk complications, and cost-benefit tradeoffs of therapeutic interventions.
  • Diagnose acute or chronic conditions that could result in rapid physiological deterioration or life-threatening instability.
  • Distinguish between normal and abnormal developmental and age-related physiological and behavioral changes in acute, critical, and chronic illness.
  • Manage patients' pain relief and sedation by providing pharmacologic and non-pharmacologic interventions, monitoring patients' responses, and changing care plans accordingly.
  • Interpret information obtained from electrocardiograms (EKGs) or radiographs (x-rays).

Technology Skills

  • Data base user interface and query software:Microsoft Access
  • Electronic mail software:IBM Lotus Notes
    ,
    Microsoft Outlook
  • Enterprise resource planning ERP software:SAP business and customer relations management software
  • Medical software:Allscripts Professional EHR
    ,
    Amkai AmkaiCharts
    ,
    Bizmatics PrognoCIS EMR
    ,
    Cerner Millennium
    ,
    ChartWare EMR
    ,
    e-MDs software
    ,
    eClinicalWorks EHR software
    ,
    GE Healthcare Centricity EMR
    ,
    Medscribbler Enterprise
    ,
    MicroFour PracticeStudio.NET EMR
    ,
    NextGen Healthcare Information Systems EMR
    ,
    SOAPware EMR
    ,
    StatCom Patient Flow Logistics Enterprise Suite
    ,
    SynaMed EMR
    ,
    Texas Medical Software SpringCharts EMR
  • Office suite software:Microsoft Office

Occupational Requirements

Work Activities

  • Assisting and Caring for Others:Providing personal assistance, medical attention, emotional support, or other personal care to others such as coworkers, customers, or patients.
  • Documenting/Recording Information:Entering, transcribing, recording, storing, or maintaining information in written or electronic/magnetic form.
  • Getting Information:Observing, receiving, and otherwise obtaining information from all relevant sources.
  • Communicating with Supervisors, Peers, or Subordinates:Providing information to supervisors, co-workers, and subordinates by telephone, in written form, e-mail, or in person.
  • Organizing, Planning, and Prioritizing Work:Developing specific goals and plans to prioritize, organize, and accomplish your work.

Detailed Work Activities

  • Adjust prostheses or other assistive devices.
  • Administer anesthetics or sedatives to control pain.
  • Administer blood or other fluids intravenously.
  • Advise patients on healthcare system processes.
  • Analyze patient data to determine patient needs or treatment goals.

Work Context

  • Telephone:100% responded"Every day"
  • Exposed to Disease or Infections:100% responded"Every day"
  • Face-to-Face Discussions:96% responded"Every day"
  • Indoors, Environmentally Controlled:96% responded"Every day"
  • Contact With Others:89% responded"Constant contact with others"

Worker Requirements

Skills

  • Active Listening:Giving full attention to what other people are saying, taking time to understand the points being made, asking questions as appropriate, and not interrupting at inappropriate times.
  • Critical Thinking:Using logic and reasoning to identify the strengths and weaknesses of alternative solutions, conclusions, or approaches to problems.
  • Monitoring:Monitoring/Assessing performance of yourself, other individuals, or organizations to make improvements or take corrective action.
  • Reading Comprehension:Understanding written sentences and paragraphs in work-related documents.
  • Service Orientation:Actively looking for ways to help people.

Knowledge

  • 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.
  • English Language:Knowledge of the structure and content of the English language including the meaning and spelling of words, rules of composition, and grammar.
  • 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.
  • 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.

Education

How much education does a new hire need to perform a job in this occupation? Respondents said:
  • 50%
    Associate's Degree (or other 2-year degree)
  • 39%
    Bachelor's Degree
  • 7%
    Master's Degree

Worker Characteristics

Abilities

  • Oral Comprehension:The ability to listen to and understand information and ideas presented through spoken words and sentences.
  • Problem Sensitivity:The ability to tell when something is wrong or is likely to go wrong. It does not involve solving the problem, only recognizing that there is a problem.
  • Deductive Reasoning:The ability to apply general rules to specific problems to produce answers that make sense.
  • Inductive Reasoning:The ability to combine pieces of information to form general rules or conclusions (includes finding a relationship among seemingly unrelated events).
  • Information Ordering:The ability to arrange things or actions in a certain order or pattern according to a specific rule or set of rules (e.g., patterns of numbers, letters, words, pictures, mathematical operations).

Interests

  • Social:Social occupations frequently involve working with, communicating with, and teaching people. These occupations often involve helping or providing service to others.
  • Investigative:Investigative occupations frequently involve working with ideas, and require an extensive amount of thinking. These occupations can involve searching for facts and figuring out problems mentally.
  • Realistic:Realistic occupations frequently involve work activities that include practical, hands-on problems and solutions. They often deal with plants, animals, and real-world materials like wood, tools, and machinery. Many of the occupations require working outside, and do not involve a lot of paperwork or working closely with others.

Work Values

  • Relationships:Occupations that satisfy this work value allow employees to provide service to others and work with co-workers in a friendly non-competitive environment. Corresponding needs are Co-workers, Moral Values and Social Service.
  • Achievement:Occupations that satisfy this work value are results oriented and allow employees to use their strongest abilities, giving them a feeling of accomplishment. Corresponding needs are Ability Utilization and Achievement.
  • Support:Occupations that satisfy this work value offer supportive management that stands behind employees. Corresponding needs are Company Policies, Supervision: Human Relations and Supervision: Technical.

Work Styles

  • Integrity:Job requires being honest and ethical.
  • Stress Tolerance:Job requires accepting criticism and dealing calmly and effectively with high-stress situations.
  • Attention to Detail:Job requires being careful about detail and thorough in completing work tasks.
  • Dependability:Job requires being reliable, responsible, and dependable, and fulfilling obligations.
  • Adaptability/Flexibility:Job requires being open to change (positive or negative) and to considerable variety in the workplace.
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