In general discussion about Acuity by unit

Looking for very general statements about acuity level for different floors, environments. Basically in general saying low, medium, or high.

I know it all depends on the particular patients of particular census, but I am looking to categorize what would in general be more low or medium levels.

The reason I want to do this, a lot of new nurses (self included) don't really know what in general is what. For the nurse that doesn't want to keep up with med-surg, that nurse may not know what other areas might be less hectic. As I age, I may want to know myself, so I'm looking to keep this in very general terms without analyzing that one particular night you may have this.

There may be a better term for what I'm trying to do here than acuity.

Example - We can pretty much call med-surg a high acuity job. (I think an observation floor would be considered low acuity.)

What other areas are high acuity, medium acuity, low acuity.

Add to these suggestions for areas I didn't mention.

(GI Lab, Heme/Onc floor, Labor/Delivery, ER, Burn Unit, Psych floor, Doctors Office, Rehab, SICU, MICU,) Add other areas I missed here. Looking for all environments, not just hospital.

Somehow need to describe too. A peds office nurse with 40 patients a day may describe that as high, but it may be high to them but medium from another nurses perspective. If you call what you do as high, maybe describe what makes it high.

Not trying to get any debate started with that, just want a good guide for the nurse that doesn't want crazy hectic and can look at this and see what might be better for them. Last edit by adnrnstudent on Nov 24, '12
I could be mistaken, but I don't think that acuity=hectic. Where i work, I would not consider the gen med floor high acuity, although it may be very hectic, the patients aren't the sickest/most unstable. I've always thought of acuity, highest to lowest, this way --ICUPRogressive/Step-Down/TelePost SurgGen MedObs

I agree. I work in acute rehab/LTAC and the patients are fairly acute but the reason it's hectic is that they're ICU-level sick bug with a ratio of 1:6

The trade off is that with high acuity patients you might only get one or two in the ICU, 3-4 in stepdown, or 30+ in the nursing home. If the patients are less sick, you get more of them. Either way, it all evens out.