Low Acuity Floors

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Hello!! What would be an axample of a low acuity floor/unit in a hospital setting? For example, would med/surg be considered a low acuity floor?

Thanks for your perspectives on this!

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This all depends on the starting number of beds on said units.

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Umm I would say probably TCU, rehab, maybe behavioral health. Those patients trend to have a lower acuity. As for med surg, I think that's kind of hit or miss. I wouldn't consider it low acuity, but I wouldn't always consider it high acuity either

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Med-surg is a catch-all term sometimes. A med-surg patient might be actually fairly high acuity, but the ICU or step-down unit needed a bed and the patient transferred to Med-surg because they were the best candidate even though they would have benefited from a little more ICU time.

I don't think low acuity really exists for inpatients anymore. Long term care with an emphasis on rehab and the new concept of LTACs have siphoned off low acuity long term patients.

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Specializes in NICU, ICU, PICU, Academia.

Mother/ baby is a low acuity unit. As is general peds in hospitals where they don't treat cancer patients.

Just make sure you're aware that low acuity does not mean less work. Low acuity units tend to have worse staffing ratios than higher acuity units.

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Specializes in Med/Surg, Academics.
Low acuity units tend to have worse staffing ratios than higher acuity units.

This. If a hospital has an on-site skilled nursing and/or rehab unit, those are lower acuity. At any time, however, even those patients can go bad and need to be transferred to an inpatient unit.

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Thanks for all the helpful responses!

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I would add - I believe post-partum is considered cake compared to most hospital units.

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LTACs are NOT low acuity. The LTAC I work in has an ICU, and the only things we don't do are CRRT and balloon pumps.

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Hello!! What would be an axample of a low acuity floor/unit in a hospital setting? For example, would med/surg be considered a low acuity floor?

Thanks for your perspectives on this!

PP pts aren't always low acuity either. I'm not a pp nurse but our unit often has sick moms with insulin/heparin drips, mag, blood transfusions...ect. I think every unit just depends on the particular day. Even the healthy pp pts can be a lot of work. That "taking in" period can make them VERY needy ;)

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Specializes in Obstetrics.

PP pts aren't always low acuity either. I'm not a pp nurse but our unit often has sick moms with insulin/heparin drips, mag, blood transfusions...ect. I think every unit just depends on the particular day. Even the healthy pp pts can be a lot of work. That "taking in" period can make them VERY needy ;)

Absolutely and I AM a PP nurse. Perhaps "back in the day" PP floors were "cake" but gone are those days. Mothers are being admitted with more comorbidities which then increase acuity. Our floor also admits gyne surgical patients with drains and complicated cases as well as ER admits with all sorts of issues; as long as they have a lady parts, they're ours. So PP being cake is not so true. It's 2013, not 1960 where we all sit in our starched white nursing uniforms, rocking babies all night. I barely sit and when I do, it's not for a break, it's to chart so I can go right back and help a first time mom breast feed for 45 minutes. :)

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Specializes in Pediatrics, Emergency, Trauma.

In my opinion, there are no "low acuity" floors or areas in nursing...they each gave their own unique acuity and workload. The only "low acuity" exposure I had in nursing was giving out flu shots.

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