When it is mentioned about acute care, that does that entail of the ICU?

PAERRN20 · Dec 30, 2009

Rule #1: No dumb questions in nursing!!

ICU is acute care. In fact, ICU is one of the most acute areas along with ER, CCU, and PACU. As for your other question- you can work as a hospital RN with an associate degree. 95% of my coworkers are ADN/ASN RN's.

JC_Smith2009 · Dec 30, 2009

Thank you, I appreciate it. I have two options I can get my adn through my local community college which is well cheaper than the university, or I can wait and after I get plenty of credit hours I can transfer what I have to the university and take the nursing courses there and get my bsn. I will just have to wait longer. The positive thing about getting my adn is that I can gain good experience through various areas and decided what I would most like to specialize or become associated with.

JC_Smith2009 · Dec 30, 2009

Rule #1: No dumb questions in nursing!!
ICU is acute care. In fact, ICU is one of the most acute areas along with ER, CCU, and PACU. As for your other question- you can work as a hospital RN with an associate degree. 95% of my coworkers are ADN/ASN RN's.

So I am assuming that to work in acute care I would need my bsn, which includes more in depth material?

adriqj46 · Dec 30, 2009

Not at all! I just graduated from a diploma program and will be working as an ICU nurse. A BSN is more for those who want to go into management type positions. You can always go back and do your RN-BSN after you graduate. Good luck!

JC_Smith2009 · Dec 30, 2009

I appreciate the feedback. I look forward to becoming a nurse. Just taking each day as it comes and learning as much as I can through people on this site and educating myself as much as I can in general in relation to this type of work. I know it is very rewarding mentally and spiritually.

netglow, ASN, RN · Dec 30, 2009

Nope they have the same clinical training in school and must pass the same board exam. You will learn most on the job along with advanced certfications to gain specific competencies once you are an RN. All this additional learning is up to you to seek out. Specialty nurses aquire the education/skills specific to the specialty.

Acute generally means of short duration. In ICU, PACU just as soon as the patient is no longer in an unstable, or life threatening condition they are moved off those units. Acute is a tricky term as it doesn't always mean critical. Just depends. In your outpatient acute care facilities, you are more dealing with rather sudden onset and quickly resolved situations for the most part. Critical stuff goes to hospital ER.

classicdame, MSN, EdD · Dec 31, 2009

Acute care is a hospital. This is versus chronic care or long term care. Rehab, nursing home, and others do not fit CMS (people who pay medicare/medicaid benefits) definition of "acute".

TheCommuter, BSN, RN · Dec 31, 2009

Any unit found in an acute care hospital would be considered an acute care specialty.

These units include medical/surgical, ICU, NICU, PICU, MICU, SICU, CVICU, PACU, ER, OR, acute rehab, ortho, neuro, L&D, postpartum, interventional radiology, trauma, nephrology, telemetry, stroke recovery, TCU, and so forth.

70 percent of the RN workforce in the U.S. is educated at the associates degree level, and most are working in acute care hospitals. There are not enough BSNs to fill the demand.

JC_Smith2009 · Dec 31, 2009

Thank you very much, this site offers me lots of helpful advice with questions that I have. Its great to have a helping hand in all of this. Thank you everyone and have a happy New Year :)

Be Safe!!!!