Nursing is an immense discipline in healthcare. Due to these numbers, there are many types of nurses, as well as specialties available for practice. Acute care nursing and primary care nursing are often confused with each other but are, in reality, very different. Acute care nurses focus on patients with complex, critical and chronic illnesses. Primary care nurses, on the other hand, emphasize health promotion, disease prevention and treat minor acute and chronic health problems.

The workday for an acute care registered nurse (RN) is frequently a busy, but rewarding one. The unpredictable nature of patient care and medicine makes creating a detailed minute-by-minute schedule of activities hard to pin down. However, all acute care RNs spend a large part of their workday assessing, checking, developing, administering and monitoring.

Acute care registered nurses provide short-term treatment for severe or life-threatening injuries, illnesses and routine health problems. The ultimate goal of acute care is the restoration of health and stability for a patient. Acute care nurses work in hospitals, urgent care clinics and ambulatory surgical clinics. This career offers ample opportunities for education and career development, autonomy and workdays that continuously present new challenges.

Acute care registered nurses (RNs) are highly skilled and in high demand. These nurses typically only work with a patient for a short time performing duties like post-surgical treatment and chronic illness management. The nature of the role requires nurses to learn new things, solve conflicts and stay current on all new developments in health care. The vital skills of an acute care RN include empathy, interpersonal communication, decision-making and critical thinking.