Tell me about med/surg, acute care, NICU, Inhaptient

[artistnurse]

What are these? I just started a new job that requires I know the needs of these units and what the nurses do (I'm not clinical yet, of course) But what do these things mean? What do they do? What is acuity? I need a human dictionary who has experience in these areas!

Med/surg

Acute care

NICU

MICU

Tele Obs.

Inpatient hold

Acute care hold

[TazziRN, RN]

MedSurg: medical-surgical floor. Do not need cardiac monitors or ICU care.

Acute Care: catch-all term to refer to units where pts are there for acute illnesses/injuries. Not rehab or long term care.

NICU: Neonatal Intensive Care Unit

MICU: Medical Intensive Care

Tele Obs: Telemetry Observation......placed on a cardiac monitor to watch what your heart does.

Inpatient hold and Acute Care hold: not sure, never heard of those.

[EricJRN, MSN, RN]

To answer one more of your questions, acuity is how 'acute' (sick) the patients are in a particular place. High acuity patients would most often be found in ICU's.