Acute care practitioner

An acute care practitioner is a healthcare professional—often a physician, nurse practitioner (NP), or physician assistant (PA)—who specializes in immediate, short-term treatment of patients with severe or urgent medical conditions. These practitioners typically work in high-intensity settings such as:

Emergency departments

Intensive care units (ICUs)

Trauma centers

Postoperative care units

Urgent care facilities

Their role includes:

Rapid assessment and stabilization of critically ill or injured patients

Performing urgent diagnostic and therapeutic procedures

Collaborating with multidisciplinary teams (including neurosurgery, cardiology, etc.)

Initiating and adjusting treatment plans in dynamic clinical environments

They are trained to make quick, evidence-based decisions, often under pressure, and frequently care for patients with life-threatening conditions like myocardial infarction, sepsis, stroke, or subarachnoid hemorrhage.

The review Spontaneous subarachnoid hemorrhage: A primer for acute care practitioners succeeds in its intent to serve as a basic primer for acute care practitioners. Its greatest strength lies in promoting a multidisciplinary approach and offering a concise overview for non-specialists. However, for readers seeking advanced clinical decision support, critical discussion of evidence, or visual summaries, the article falls short ¹⁾