Background: Nursing Activities Score (NAS) is a promising tool for calculating the nursing workload in intensive care units (ICU). However, data on intensive care nursing activities in Portugal are practically non‐existent.Aim: To assess the nursing workload in a Portuguese ICU using the NAS.Study Design: Retrospective cohort study developed throughout the analysis of the electronic health record database from 56 adult patients admitted to a six‐bed Portuguese ICU between 1 June–31 August 2020. The nursing workload was assessed by the Portuguese version of the NAS. The study was approved by the Hospital Council Board and Ethics Committee. The study report followed the STROBE guidelines.Results: The average occupancy rate was 73.55% (±16.60%). The average nursing workload per participant was 67.52 (±10.91) points. There was a correlation between the occupancy rate and the nursing workload. In 35.78% of the days, the nursing workload was higher than the available human resources, overloading nurse staffing/team.Conclusions: The nursing workload reported follows the trend of the international studies and the results reinforce the importance of adjusting the nursing staffing to the complexity of nursing care in this ICU. This study highlighted periods of nursing workload that could compromise patient safety.Relevance to Clinical Practice: This was one of the first studies carried out with the NAS after its cross‐cultural adaptation and validation for the Portuguese population. The nursing workload at the patient level was higher in the first 24 h of ICU stays. Because of the ‘administrative and management activities’ related to the ‘patient discharge procedures’, the last 24 h of ICU stays also presented high levels of nursing workload. The implementation of a nurse‐to‐patient ratio of 1:1 may contribute to safer nurse staffing and to improve patient safety in this Tertiary (level 3) ICU.

Background/Objectives: An operationally defined unchanged itch-score sequence may indicate persistent symptoms rather than symptom resolution. We described pruritus following antihistamine initiation in children with burns and examined how its apparent stabilization depended on the analytical definition. Methods: This retrospective single-center study included 247 children. Daily scores were reconstructed from clinical charts using IMS-derived and TPIS-derived coding frameworks. Analyses added during revision examined alternative stability rules, candidate breakpoints, separate tool-specific trajectories and missingness. Results: Mean normalized itch decreased from 0.836 on Day 0 to 0.628 on Day 2 and 0.605 on Day 3 and then ranged from 0.591 to 0.608 through Day 14. All 3210 observed scores remained above zero, including all 197 available Day-14 assessments; 50 Day-14 scores were missing. A post hoc rule requiring three unchanged consecutive daily scores after at least one category of improvement was met by 177/247 children (71.7%), with a conditional median confirmation day of 4 (IQR 3–5). Alternative rules gave medians of 3 and 5. Candidate model comparisons favored Day 2; age/tool trajectories differed (p < 0.001). Adjusted models included 2654 observations from 205 children. Conclusions: The recorded trajectory showed early reduction followed by little change in mean itch, with persistent symptoms in observed assessments. The timing of operational score-stability events depended on the definition applied. Neither a drug effect nor a validated clinical reassessment threshold can be inferred.