ABSTRACT
Typically the intensive care unit (ICU) have been carved out of existing space in the hospital. The presence of complicated machinery is one of the chief stresses for new recruits of the ICU. Indeed, the gap between the ICU and other services is so great that there tends often to be relatively little transmission of nursing knowledge about specific patients from ICU nurses to those nurses who will next give care to these patients. A characteristic feature of intensive nursing care is that the nurse’s focus is very intensive and narrow. A characteristic feature of ICU, already alluded to, is the nature of their patients. In consequence, the nurses function as reassurers. Also they coach the family members as to how to behave in such restricted, specialized space and before other very ill patients. Let us make an observation or two about the meaning — in the largest sense — of ICU for contemporary nursing itself.
