Jobs / Healthcare / 29-1141.01
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.
- US jobs
- 3,379,720 (SOC 29-1141 group, "Registered Nurses")
- Median wage
- $97,550 a year
- Job family
- Healthcare
Can agents do the work of acute care nurses?
We read the evidence for the whole job family, Healthcare: Some tasks (no change in 12 months)
Agents complete 20% or more of the tasks (or projects) on a direct benchmark.
Evidence: MedAgentBench, 69.7% of tasks completed.
0% of this occupation's work, by O*NET work activities, is measured by a direct benchmark (figures for the SOC 29-1141 group).
- 8%Confer with healthcare or other professionals about patient careNot measured
- 8%Monitor health conditions of humans or animalsNot measured
- 6%Analyze health or medical dataNot measured
- 6%Maintain health or medical recordsNot measured
- 5%Develop operational or technical procedures or standardsNot measured
- 5%Administer basic health care or medical treatmentsNot measured
- 4%Train others on health or medical topicsNot measured
- 4%Evaluate patient or client condition or treatment optionsNot measured
Benchmarks for the job family
These cover work in healthcare, not always this occupation's tasks.
Direct evidence
Work benchmarks mapped primary to this family. They set the step when they report how many tasks agents complete.
Also relevant
These benchmarks cover part of this family's work, or have no result yet. They do not set its step.
Context only
These benchmarks span many occupations, or they test how agents behave. They give context but do not set the step.
- 1846 EloClaude Opus 5.5 (Adaptive Reasoning, Max Effort, Default Fallback) · 23 Sep 2026Unrated
Typical tasks
From O*NET 31.0. Core tasks first. Few of these tasks have a benchmark today.
- 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).
- Perform administrative duties that facilitate admission, transfer, or discharge of patients.
- Obtain specimens or samples for laboratory work.
- Manage patients' pain relief and sedation by providing pharmacologic and non-pharmacologic interventions, monitoring patients' responses, and changing care plans accordingly.
- Collaborate with members of multidisciplinary health care teams to plan, manage, or assess patient treatments.
Other job titles for this occupation (27)
Acute Care Nurse · Cardiac Interventional Care Nurse · Cardiovascular ICU Nurse (Cardiovascular Intense Care Unit Nurse) · Cardiovascular Surgery Acute Care Nurse Practitioner (Cardiovascular Surgery ACNP) · Charge Nurse · DSU Nurse (Day Surgery Unit Nurse) · MSN (Medical Surgical Nurse) · PCU RN (Progressive Care Unit Registered Nurse) · Staff Nurse · Vascular Access Registered Nurse (Vascular Access RN) · Admission Nurse · Admission Nurse Coordinator · Care Transitions Manager · Care Transitions Nurse · Chronic Condition Nurse · ICU RN (Intensive Care Unit Registered Nurse) · ICU Travel RN (Intensive Care Unit Travel Registered Nurse) · Nurse · PACU RN (Post Anesthesia Care Unit Registered Nurse) · PACU Travel RN (Post Anesthesia Care Unit Travel Registered Nurse) · Pediatric Acute Care Unit Nurse · Post-Op RN (Postoperative Registered Nurse) · Pre-Op RN (Preoperative Registered Nurse) · Progressive Care RN (Progressive Care Registered Nurse) · Screening Unit RN (Screening Unit Registered Nurse) · Step Down RN (Step Down Registered Nurse) · Telemetry RN (Telemetry Registered Nurse)