OBJECTIVE: To measure total physician manoeuvres and total nursing manoeuvres in intensive care patients and to compare the results with calculated personnel requirements on the basis of TISS scores. DESIGN: Open prospective study. SETTING: Sixty-three ICU patients on two consecutive days. MEASUREMENT: 1. Total physician activities (TPM) in minutes/patient-day; total nursing manoeuvres (TNM) in min/patient-day. 2. TISS Calculation of personnel requirements on the basis of both parameters. RESULTS: TPM averaged at 3.9 hours. No fixed correlation was established between TISS and TPM. TNM averaged 1,073 minutes/patient-day and demonstrated a good correlation with TISS. CONCLUSIONS: Physician activities on a surgical ICU averaged 3.9 hours/patient-day. Nursing manoeuvres average 17.9 hours/patient-day. Individual measurements must be made before calculating personnel requirements on the basis of TISS scores.
OBJECTIVE: To measure total physician manoeuvres and total nursing manoeuvres in intensive care patients and to compare the results with calculated personnel requirements on the basis of TISS scores. DESIGN: Open prospective study. SETTING: Sixty-three ICU patients on two consecutive days. MEASUREMENT: 1. Total physician activities (TPM) in minutes/patient-day; total nursing manoeuvres (TNM) in min/patient-day. 2. TISS Calculation of personnel requirements on the basis of both parameters. RESULTS: TPM averaged at 3.9 hours. No fixed correlation was established between TISS and TPM. TNM averaged 1,073 minutes/patient-day and demonstrated a good correlation with TISS. CONCLUSIONS: Physician activities on a surgical ICU averaged 3.9 hours/patient-day. Nursing manoeuvres average 17.9 hours/patient-day. Individual measurements must be made before calculating personnel requirements on the basis of TISS scores.