Acute care is defined as short-term hospital care provided to clients with conditions of short duration, requiring stays of less than 30 days, in contrast with restorative (long-term), community, and home care. The purpose of acute care nursing, which incorporates clients of all ages with a wide variety of clinical problems, is to support the restoration of normal life processes and functions. Acute care nurses practice both primary prevention (preventing a disease from occurring) and secondary prevention (preventing complications), and they are increasingly involved in chronic illness management. Acute care institutions can be proprietary or not-for-profit and may provide general versus specialized care. Acute care institutions often provide long term care as well as intensive care.

Unlicensed clinical or nursing assistants, licensed practical or vocational nurses, and registered nurses provide care in the hospital setting. Registered nurses may hold associate, diploma, baccalaureate, or graduate degrees in nursing. In addition, they can achieve certification in their specialties by completing additional education, practice, and testing. They can also become advanced practice nurses through graduate education. Advanced practice nursing specialties include clinical nurse specialist (CNS), nurse practitioner (NP), certified nurse midwife (CNM), and certified registered nurse anesthetist (CRNA). Advanced practice is statutorily defined by the states.

Acute care nurses use critical thinking when applying the nursing process. They call upon their nursing knowledge as well as foundational knowledge from the biomedical, pharmacological, sociological, psychosocial, cultural, and spiritual domains. The critical thinking applied by acute care nurses is affected by institutional, regulatory, and governmental philosophies and ethical frameworks. Certification for specialty nursing is offered by national organizations, such as the American Nurses Association (ANA) and the Canadian Nurses Association (CNA), or by specialty organizations, such as the American Association of Critical Care Nurses (AACN). Many specialty organizations have developed specialty-specific core curricula to summarize the scientific basis of specialty practice.

Working with other health care professions, nursing has also developed clinical guidelines for specific areas of specialty practice, often within organizations such as the American Heart Association. Clinical guidelines are used to standardize care, rationalize care planning, allocate resources, market programs of care, and facilitate cooperation across the community of providers. Care maps (clinical or critical pathways) are a form of clinical guideline used to reduce variations in care, reduce resource utilization, and improve client outcomes. Clinical guidelines are also available through the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ) and the Cochrane Collaboration.