What Is Acute Care Experience?
Acute care facilities provide emergency care to people. Their goal is to stabilize patients until they can either be sent home or transferred to a sub-acute facility for further care. The name "acute care facility" is often given to emergency rooms and walk-in patient clinics. Persons who work in these kinds of facilities must be well trained and experienced to handle all kinds of medical emergencies.
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Cardiac Care
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One of the most important things personnel of an acute care facility need to know is how to provide emergency cardiac care. They should be well versed in CPR (cardio pulmonary resuscitation) both for adults and children. Depending upon their position on the staff, they may be required to cardio convert a patient, administer medications directly to the heart or perform other emergency cardiac care procedures.
Pulmonary Care
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A patient coming to the acute care facility with shortness of breath requires assessment that pertains to maintaining a patent airway. The personnel will need to be experienced in pulmonary function assessment, able to acquire ABG's (arteriole blood gases) and be trained in CPR and in the Heimlich maneuver, among many other assessment and treatment regimens.
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Trauma Care
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Trauma caused by injury or accident is the most common complaint seen in emergency rooms and walk-in clinics. Car accidents, gunshot wounds, broken bones are just among a few of the traumas you can expect to encounter in an acute care facility. All personnel should be well versed in first aid assessment and triage.
Problems Getting Experience
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One problem encountered when trying to get acute care experience is that most emergency rooms and trauma centers are very reluctant to hire personnel who don't already have some experience in acute care. Most emergency care centers do not have the time to train new graduates. However, walk-in clinics are often short staffed and looking to hire anyone they can get who is qualified. These walk-in clinics can be a great source of experience, as you never know what situation will come through the doors.
Advantages
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The main advantage to getting acute care experience is that just about any facility will hire someone with at least six months experience at this level. Emergency rooms are frequently hiring skilled personnel. You may have to work weekends and holidays at first, but if you are competent and show up for work on a regular basis, you are sure to gain more hours as time goes on.
Disadvantages
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In many situations, because of the extreme circumstances that are dealt with on a daily basis in acute care, there is a high potential for burn out among personnel. Frequently acute care personnel are rotated to other departments for a week or two to decrease this potential for burnout, so expect this to happen, and know it is not to reprimand you but to help relieve some of the stress associated with this kind of job.
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