Low Acuity Floors

Hello!! What would be an axample of a low acuity floor/unit in a hospital setting? For example, would med/surg be considered a low acuity floor?

Thanks for your perspectives on this!
This all depends on the starting number of beds on said units.

Umm I would say probably TCU, rehab, maybe behavioral health. Those patients trend to have a lower acuity. As for med surg, I think that's kind of hit or miss. I wouldn't consider it low acuity, but I wouldn't always consider it high acuity either

Med-surg is a catch-all term sometimes. A med-surg patient might be actually fairly high acuity, but the ICU or step-down unit needed a bed and the patient transferred to Med-surg because they were the best candidate even though they would have benefited from a little more ICU time.I don't think low acuity really exists for inpatients anymore. Long term care with an emphasis on rehab and the new concept of LTACs have siphoned off low acuity long term patients.

Mother/ baby is a low acuity unit. As is general peds in hospitals where they don't treat cancer patients. Just make sure you're aware that low acuity does not mean less work. Low acuity units tend to have worse staffing ratios than higher acuity units.

Quote from meanmaryjeanLow acuity units tend to have worse staffing ratios than higher acuity units.

Thanks for all the helpful responses!

I would add - I believe post-partum is considered cake compared to most hospital units.

LTACs are NOT low acuity. The LTAC I work in has an ICU, and the only things we don't do are CRRT and balloon pumps.

Quote from daisygirl5Hello!! What would be an axample of a low acuity floor/unit in a hospital setting? For example, would med/surg be considered a low acuity floor?Thanks for your perspectives on this!

Quote from CharlotteRN12PP pts aren't always low acuity either. I'm not a pp nurse but our unit often has sick moms with insulin/heparin drips, mag, blood transfusions...ect. I think every unit just depends on the particular day. Even the healthy pp pts can be a lot of work. That "taking in" period can make them VERY needy

In my opinion, there are no "low acuity" floors or areas in nursing...they each gave their own unique acuity and workload. The only "low acuity" exposure I had in nursing was giving out flu shots.

If you break down the concept of "acuity", you're actually looking at 2 factors: 1) Intensity and 2) workload. Intensity refers to the amount of nursing assessment & interventions that need to be done... you can have a completely ambulatory patient that has high intensity needs if they are dealing with a new diagnosis or have to learn self-care management in a very short amount of time. On the other hand, you can have very stable patients (low intensity) that have a very high workload... such as comatose patients.Unfortunately, the amount of staff available for patient care is dictated by the budgeted number of "nursing hours" per patient... so there just isn't any 'down time' these days. In many cases, there is no consideration of "acuity" at all. Staffing is just based on number of patients.