Education and staffing levels in the intensive care unit.

The Joint Board of Clinical Nursing Studies (JBCNS), established in 1972, sought to standardize the type of clinical experience and theoretical input required for postregistration nurses in specialist areas. The English National Board (ENB) superseded the JBCNS as a result of the Nurses, Health Visitors and Midwives Act of 1979. Colleges of nursing will become the providers of specialist intensive care education and the clinical areas or individual nurses will become the purchasers. The implementation of Project 2000 may alter the educational needs of nurses wishing to specialize in intensive care. The introduction of the Credit Accumulation Transfer System will lead to diploma or degree level modules being developed in intensive care. Increasing clinical expertise will be engendered through the ENB Higher Award. More flexible use of the workforce is envisaged, promoting the use of part-time and episodic employment, to meet the demands of the NHS as a contract-based organization.