The objective of this Integrative Review is to analyze the influence of dimensioning of intensive care nursing staff on the quality of critical adult patient care delivered. Only scientific publications from major electronic databases published in open access journals online during the last decade (January 2000 to January 2010) in English, Portuguese, and Spanish were included. A total of 10 publications were thus obtained, among which three evaluated the incidence of mortality and post-operational accidental extubation, three evaluated the reflections on care resulting from reduced nursing staff; two rated the development of infections; and one estimated the incidence of falls and ventilator-associated pneumonia. These studies indicate the relationship between sub-dimensioning nursing workers and increased infection rates, mortality, falls, ventilator-associated pneumonia, and accidental extubation.
Personnel downsizing; Nursing; Quality of health care; Intensive care units
