Roles of the allocated nurse and shift leader in the intensive care unit: findings of an ethnographic study.

In the UK, recent policy guidelines emphasize the role of nurses in managing the minute-by-minute care of critically ill patients (Department of Health 1996). This article reports on a study that explored the extent to which the nurse at the bedside (the allocated nurse) and the nurse in charge of the shift (the shift leader) make decisions about the needs of children who are critically ill. The study also identified areas of need using a modified Delphi study and explored how nurses perceive and act on the needs of critically ill children. These aspects are presented elsewhere.