Is there demand for Acute Care Nurses?

The Bureau of Labor Statistics projects employment of Acute Care Nurses to grow 5.6% from 2025 to 2035, compared with 3.5% growth for all jobs, with about 180,800 openings a year.

What education do Acute Care Nurses need?

Typical entry-level education: Bachelor's degree. Preparation level: considerable preparation.

What skills do Acute Care Nurses use most?

Reading Comprehension, Speaking, Critical Thinking, Service Orientation, Active Listening, and Writing.

Acute Care Nurses

Also called Cardiovascular ICU Nurse (Cardiovascular Intense Care Unit Nurse), Cardiovascular Surgery Acute Care Nurse Practitioner (Cardiovascular Surgery ACNP), Charge Nurse, or Staff Nurse

Updated September 2026 · Source: O*NET 31.0

You care for hospital patients whose bodies are in crisis, watching for small changes that signal something big is about to go wrong.

Acute care nurses look after people who are seriously unwell right now: a heart attack, trouble breathing, shock (when blood is not reaching the body's organs properly), or recovery from major surgery. You assess what is happening using both your own eyes and hands and the readings from machines, then act. That can mean emergency chest compressions and rescue procedures, setting up a breathing machine, giving a blood transfusion and watching for bad reactions, or reading a heart tracing or x-ray.

You are never far from other people. You explain illnesses and treatment plans to patients and worried families, and you work shoulder to shoulder with doctors, aides, and other nurses. Between those conversations there is quiet, focused solo work: writing careful notes on everything you observed, gave, and changed, and handling the paperwork that moves patients in, home, or between different parts of the hospital, such as from surgery to an intensive care ward.

A day in the life

You start indoors, in a climate-controlled hospital, listening as the nurse finishing their shift explains how each patient is doing. You are on your feet most of the day, moving between rooms in gloves and often a mask or gown to protect yourself and your patients. You check monitors, listen to chests, ask questions, and draw blood or other samples for the lab. A patient's numbers drop and the room fills fast; you and the team work together to stabilize them. Later you sit for a few minutes to write up what happened, medication by medication. In between, a family wants to know what a scan means, and you explain it in words they can hold onto. The clock is always pushing, and plans change hour to hour.

This could fit you if you…

✓Stay calm and think clearly when things move fast
✓Like science and figuring out why a body is behaving a certain way
✓Enjoy explaining things to people who are frightened or confused
✓Are comfortable using your hands with breathing tubes, drips that deliver fluids or medicine, and monitoring equipment
✓Want work where careful notes and details genuinely matter

You might not like it if you…

–Are uneasy around serious illness, blood, or medical emergencies
–Want to sit at a desk instead of standing and moving for most of a shift
–Dislike constant time pressure and interruptions
–Would rather avoid the risk of being around contagious illness

How people get in

1Take biology, chemistry, and other science classes in high school, and get used to talking with all kinds of people through a job or volunteering.
2Enroll in a nursing program; a bachelor's degree is the typical entry-level education, and programs such as Registered Nursing lead this way.
3Complete the supervised hospital practice built into your program, where you learn beside experienced nurses on real hospital wards.
4Get licensed as a registered nurse in your state; many employers also ask nurses to complete training in emergency life-support procedures, which teach you how to help someone whose heart or breathing has stopped.
5Start on a hospital ward, then move toward intensive care or surgical recovery work as you build experience.
6Consider further study later, such as a nursing practice or nurse practitioner program, if you want to take on more advanced procedures and responsibility.

Who tends to enjoy it

Helping

People who like teaching, caring for, and working closely with people.

Curious

People who like figuring things out, research, science, and solving problems.

Hands-on

People who like building, fixing, working with tools, machines, plants, or animals.

Official task list

Acute Care Nurses provide advanced nursing care for patients with acute conditions such as heart attacks, respiratory distress syndrome, or shock. May care for pre- and post-operative patients or perform advanced, invasive diagnostic or therapeutic procedures. (O*NET)

Discuss illnesses and treatments with patients and family members.
Diagnose acute or chronic conditions that could result in rapid physiological deterioration or life-threatening instability.
Perform emergency medical procedures, such as basic cardiac life support (BLS), advanced cardiac life support (ACLS), and other condition-stabilizing interventions.
Assess urgent and emergent health conditions, using both physiologically and technologically derived data.
Set up, operate, or monitor invasive equipment and devices, such as colostomy or tracheotomy equipment, mechanical ventilators, catheters, gastrointestinal tubes, and central lines.
Document data related to patients' care, including assessment results, interventions, medications, patient responses, or treatment changes.
Administer blood and blood product transfusions or intravenous infusions, monitoring patients for adverse reactions.
Interpret information obtained from electrocardiograms (EKGs) or radiographs (x-rays).

A typical day involves

Exposed to illness Face-to-face with people Part of a team Wearing safety gear Deadlines and time pressure Indoors, climate controlled Standing

Skills that matter most

Reading Comprehension
Speaking
Critical Thinking
Service Orientation
Active Listening
Writing

What you'll need to know

Medicine and Dentistry
Customer and Personal Service
Education and Training
English Language
Psychology

How much Acute Care Nurses make

The median pay for Acute Care Nurses in the U.S. is $97,550 a year ($46.90 an hour). Most earn between $68,940 and $137,470. (Bureau of Labor Statistics, May 2025)

Pay depends a lot on where you live: the median is highest in California ($140,270) and lowest in Puerto Rico ($39,880).

Pay by state and territory

State	Median pay	Jobs
Alabama	$77,080	54,340
Alaska	$109,480	7,510
Arizona	$99,500	73,150
Arkansas	$78,940	29,400
California	$140,270	338,940
Colorado	$100,260	54,490
Connecticut	$102,740	40,110
Delaware	$99,520	14,290
District of Columbia	$102,540	11,440
Florida	$84,190	229,940
Georgia	$93,550	100,950
Hawaii	$136,320	12,940
Idaho	$92,460	16,880
Illinois	$95,990	138,910
Indiana	$83,500	68,980
Iowa	$78,630	34,420
Kansas	$79,320	33,800
Kentucky	$81,040	50,300
Louisiana	$80,230	48,970
Maine	$86,990	16,540
Maryland	$99,790	52,910
Massachusetts	$104,550	88,200
Michigan	$94,300	104,950
Minnesota	$101,510	70,110
Mississippi	$77,090	29,060
Missouri	$81,780	76,310
Montana	$85,280	10,950
Nebraska	$84,730	24,720
Nevada	$103,670	27,070
New Hampshire	$99,700	15,390
New Jersey	$106,500	92,680
New Mexico	$94,340	17,980
New York	$109,440	205,810
North Carolina	$84,350	111,120
North Dakota	$80,730	11,340
Ohio	$82,510	143,730
Oklahoma	$82,920	38,270
Oregon	$129,010	39,730
Pennsylvania	$96,430	146,520
Puerto Rico	$39,880	21,270
Rhode Island	$100,640	10,090
South Carolina	$82,360	49,750
South Dakota	$78,060	14,710
Tennessee	$81,500	72,200
Texas	$95,970	271,380
U.S. Virgin Islands	$84,120	470
Utah	$84,600	27,420
Vermont	$97,460	7,410
Virginia	$93,600	77,490
Washington	$124,200	69,260
West Virginia	$80,130	23,430
Wisconsin	$95,530	68,060
Wyoming	$83,760	5,330