[Nursing workload to verify nurse/patient ratio in a cardiology ICU].

This is a descriptive study, aiming at comparing the nursing workload in a post-operatory heart surgery unit (UPOCC) using NAS, TISS-28 and NEMS, and verifying both the observed and recommended nursing staff-to-patient ratio according to the workload indexes used. Data collection happened in a University Hospital, from October to November, 2004. The sample included 55 patients, resulting in 283 nursing workload measurements. The nursing workload measured by NAS (73.7%) were statistically higher than TISS-28 (66.2%) and NEMS (59.7%). The average of nursing staff-to-patient ratio estimated by NAS (1:1), TISS-28 (0.8:1) and NEMS (0.8:1) were lower than the observed ratio in the unit (1.2:1). We concluded that NAS measured a higher nursing workload and showed a nursing staff-to-patient ratio similar to the results found in the unit studied.