3. Intensive care units are highly specialized areas of the hospital where critically ill patients are monitored and often treated using complex equipment. Critical care nurses have the ability to promote the quality of clinical practice procedures and decrease ICU length of stay and costs of intensive care. However, studies examining the relationship between nurse staffing, costs of ICU care, and ICU length of stay are limited to patients admitted to surgical ICUs. Thus, further research is needed to validate results and to study patients admitted to a variety of specialty ICUs.