Difference between Acute Care and ICU

[spb1]

I'm a pre-nursing student. Can you tell me the difference between acute care and intensive care?

[JiffyGriff]

ICU is acute care........ difference is that ICU is a delineation of a unit and acute care is a delineation of a type of care.

Many types of nursing are acute care such as:

-Intensive Care/Critical Care

-Medical/Surgical - ICU stepdown

-Orthopedics

-Pediatrics

-etc........

What acute care means is that they come to the unit they are treated for the specific condition they came in for and they are discharge.......in and out as quick as possible...... Acute = being treated for specific detail.

The inverse of Acute Care is Long Term Care.

In a simple way; Acute Care is performed on hospital units with minimal length of admission and Long Term Care is done at long term care facilities such as assisted living facilities and nursing homes.

If it helps to think of it this way.......a patient could live in a nursing home (Long Term Care) come down with a case of aspirated pnuemonia and go to the hospital (Acute Care) be treated within 10 days or so and sent back to the nursing home......

Make sense?

-Jiffy.