Demonstration of sizing nursing staff methods in intensive care.

Objective: to demonstrate the sizing of intensive care nursing staff estimated by two calculations, using the Nursing Activities Score as one of its central components.

Method: descriptive, retrospective study that compiled the Nursing Activities Score scores of patients in five Intensive Care Units of a hospital in southern Brazil. Two calculations were used to size the nursing staff. In addition to other components, calculation I converted the Nursing Activities Score into minutes and hours; and calculation II used this score on a denominator corresponding to one nursing professional/day, considering two types of work shifts. In both equations, the proportion of 52% of nurses was respected.

Results: in the 9,610 evaluations, the mean of Nursing Activities Score was 85.9% (80.8% to 96.4%). While calculation I estimated 164 professionals, calculation II projected 176 and 140 workers for five and four shifts, respectively. The difference in nurses between the methods was 18 professionals.

Conclusion: the choice of the calculation and the number of work shifts substantially interfere in the estimation of intensive care nursing staff. This may support a methodological review in the standardization of nursing sizing in this area.