title: [Complexity of care: meanings and interpretation].
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Although the concept of complexity of care is widely used and discussed, its meaning is blurred and its characteristics are not well defined.
  
  
  OBJECTIVE
  To identify the words used to define the concept of complexity in the literature and its meaning.
  
  
  METHODS
  A literature search was performed on the following databases: Pubmed, Medline, Ebsco, Cinahl and Cochrane. No temporal limits were set; publications written in English and Italian were included.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Several terms are used to define the concept of complexity, often interchangeably notwithstanding their different meaning. Three main concepts were identified: nursing intensity that includes the concepts of dependency, severity and complexity of patients care; nursing workload that comprises the concept of nursing intensity and all the activities not patient-related; and the patient acuity that includes the severity of illness and the caring intensity.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  A common definition is needed to be able to use the concept of complexity of care to allocate nursing resources.
authors.affiliation: Ospedale di Trento.
authors.forename: Marina
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Cologna
authors.forename: Daniela
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Zanolli
authors.forename: Luisa
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Saiani
mesh_terms: D019985:Benchmarking; D002017:Budgets; D004471:Economics, Nursing; D006801:Humans; D009723:Nurse-Patient Relations; D009729:Nursing / Q000592:standards*; D010361:Patients / Q000145:classification*; D012720:Severity of Illness Index; D016526:Workload