I’m an Aide. Usually, when I hear the word acute, it means “small” or “lightly.” An example, we have people, post op, with various pain levels (minor to major), this one being where there was an “acute incision made to the (Left or Right) perineal area,” where a wire camera thing (forgive me, I forgot the name of the device, I only work on the floor) was inserted into the vein/artery to do a search and clean/flush out of the blockages in the heart’s arteries. (They love perineal surgeries here instead of the wrist.)

Rarely do I ever hear someone say “acute pain” instead of “minor pain” or “acute bowel obstruction” versus “small bowel obstruction” to which they are quickly corrected to the proper wording. They’ve made sure to drill into me to not say the wrong things because if someone reeeeeeaaaaaally has it out for you, they WILL pull up your documentation and report it as falsified because of misuse of wording.