ABSTRACT
The fifty years of ICUs have seen various technologies, drugs and protocols launched as panaceas for problems of critical illness. While many have found a valid niche, initial hopes have often been largely disappointed. What has been constant is the contribution of nurses and nursing to outcomes for critically ill patients. So what is the purpose of nurses in ICUs? What does critical illness, and admission to intensive care, cost patients and their families? In the busyness of everyday practice, these fundamental questions can too easily be forgotten. Nursing is expensive, costing more than one-quarter of acute Trust budgets, and although ICU staffing costs vary, high nurse:patient ratios necessitate the need for ICU nurses to clarify their value (Bray et al., 2009). This book explores issues for ICU nursing practice; this section establishes core fundamental aspects of ICU nursing. To help readers articulate the importance of their role, this first chapter explores what nursing means in the context of intensive care, while Chapter 2 outlines two schools of psychology (Humanism and Behaviourism) that have influenced healthcare and society.
