ABSTRACT
This chapter addresses the answer for some questions: what fundamentally are we doing for our patients? What should we be doing? and how should we be doing it? Reductions in mortality rates may reflect improvements in treatments and practice, but may also reflect increasing numbers of patients admitted for Level 2 care. Mortality and morbidity are higher than with less advanced disease; emotional costs to patients, relatives and staff are also significant. Within the relatively few decades intensive care units have existed, nursing and nursing roles have changed dramatically. Workforce accounts for just under half of NHS costs, and nurses are the largest single group of workers in health services. The Acute Physiology and Chronic Health Evaluation is the most widely used scoring system in intensive care unit; acute physiology and chronic health evaluation II is the version used, although a fourth version exists – less often used as it is not in the public domain, and so entails costs.
