[Care work load in critical patients. Comparative study NEMS versus NAS].

Introduction: The systems of calculating care load have not yet reached the levels of generalized use which the systems of prognostic estimation of survival have. The reason for this is their potential defects of design (medical and not nursing conceptualization) and the sometimes confusing completion (TISS 76). The simplest ("nine equivalents of nurse manpower use score" [NEMS], care levels) add the difficulty of not being useful for the calculation of staff, because the design is not oriented towards nursing.

[Nursing Activity Score (NAS). Our experience with a nursing load calculation system based on times].

Introduction: The load calculation systems of nursing work in the ICU has not had the same success in its introduction as the prognostic survival estimation systems. It causes may be: a medical design not oriented towards nursing (Therapeutic Intervention Scoring System--TISS in all its versions), lack of adaptation to the calculating of staff (Nursing Manpower Use Score--NEMS, care levels) and demand for permanent technological up-dating. In 2003, NAS was published in an attempt to obviate all the problems expressed.