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Acute Care Nurses

Provide advanced nursing care for patients with acute conditions such as heart attacks, respiratory distress syndrome, or shock. May care for pre- and post-operative patients or perform advanced, invasive diagnostic or therapeutic procedures.

$97,550 a year (for the broader BLS group this job sits in).

now
59%

of the working time. Estimate.

Kinds of work
  • 62%
  • 13%
  • 24%
6%

Measured, from Anthropic's usage data (2025). Counts help on part of a task.

Half the desk work within reach
Already

On the chosen pace and reliability. Estimate.

Share of the working time within reach, now to 2030

0%25%50%75%100%2027202820292030NowDesk work: 62% of the time
Chosen to Ceiling: the share
DateNow
NowEnd of 2030

What each choice means: , , , , . Every pace starts from .

At this date and pace, models finish tasks up to 4.4 h long four times in five.

How far this has come

With GPT-4, measured in March 2023, 0% of this job's working time was within reach at . With Claude 3.7 Sonnet, measured in February 2025, 3%. With Claude Mythos Preview (early), measured in April 2026, 57%. Today's estimate: 59%.

0%25%50%2023202420252026GPT-4, March 2023: 0% within reachGPT-4 Turbo (Nov 2023), November 2023: 0% within reachGPT-4o, May 2024: 0% within reachClaude 3.5 Sonnet (June 2024), June 2024: 0% within reacho1-preview, September 2024: 0% within reachClaude 3.5 Sonnet (Oct 2024), October 2024: 0% within reacho1, December 2024: 1% within reachClaude 3.7 Sonnet, February 2025: 3% within reacho3, April 2025: 23% within reachGPT-5, August 2025: 30% within reachGemini 3 Pro, November 2025: 40% within reachClaude Opus 4.5, November 2025: 40% within reachGPT-5.2, December 2025: 44% within reachClaude Opus 4.6, February 2026: 46% within reachClaude Mythos Preview (early), April 2026: 57% within reachToday (estimate), September 2026: 59% within reach
Each step is a new best model measured by METR, four in five; the dashed end is today's estimate. Point at a dot for the model.

A backcast: today's task data with the best model METR had measured by each date. It shows how fast the models have moved, not what anyone forecast at the time.

The tasks

Sorted by . 27 tasks from .

TaskKind
Manage patients' pain relief and sedation by providing pharmacologic and non-pharmacologic interventions, monitoring patients' responses, and changing care plans accordingly.Done hourly or more by most who do it. 8%25 min13 min to 50 minStays with people
Document data related to patients' care, including assessment results, interventions, medications, patient responses, or treatment changes.Done hourly or more by most who do it. 7%17 min8 min to 29 min100%Half by now
Participate in patients' care meetings and conferences.Done daily by most who do it. 6%50 min25 min to 1.7 h99%Half by now
Participate in the development of practice protocols.Done more than yearly by most who do it. 6%2.5 h50 min to 6.7 h46%Half by Oct 2026
Set up, operate, or monitor invasive equipment and devices, such as colostomy or tracheotomy equipment, mechanical ventilators, catheters, gastrointestinal tubes, and central lines.Done several times a day by most who do it. 5%29 min13 min to 1.3 hStays with people
Discuss illnesses and treatments with patients and family members.Done several times a day by most who do it. 5%17 min8 min to 33 minStays with people
Provide formal and informal education to other staff members.Done daily by most who do it. 5%38 min13 min to 1.7 h95%Half by now
Diagnose acute or chronic conditions that could result in rapid physiological deterioration or life-threatening instability.Done several times a day by most who do it. 5%25 min13 min to 50 min100%Half by now
Assess urgent and emergent health conditions, using both physiologically and technologically derived data.Done several times a day by most who do it. 5%21 min8 min to 50 min100%Half by now
Distinguish between normal and abnormal developmental and age-related physiological and behavioral changes in acute, critical, and chronic illness.Done daily by most who do it. 5%21 min8 min to 50 min100%Half by now
Assess the needs of patients' family members or caregivers.Done daily by most who do it. 5%17 min8 min to 38 min100%Half by now
Collaborate with members of multidisciplinary health care teams to plan, manage, or assess patient treatments.Done daily by most who do it. 5%21 min8 min to 50 minStays with people

Within reach, per task: the share of the task's time whose instances are short enough for a model to finish at the chosen date, pace and reliability. Half by: the date half of that time comes within reach.

Jobs that share skills with this one

From O*NET's related occupations. Within reach now and by the end of 2028, long-run pace, four in five.

Where this job works

The industry groups that employ the most of it (BLS, May 2025). Counts are for the broader BLS group this job sits in.

Where the most of these jobs are

The metro areas with the most people in it (BLS, May 2025). Counts are for the broader BLS group this job sits in.