Further data to address the Alzheimer's coverage with evidence development questions.

Nurse shortages in intensive care units (ICUs) are a global challenge [, ]. Contributing factors include excessive workload, burnout, moral distress, and nurses’ inability to provide the level of care they consider necessary [–]. As a result, healthcare organisations are increasingly exploring alternative models of care delivery. Traditionally, ICU nurses are responsible for all aspects of patient care, ranging from essential nursing care to highly specialised clinical tasks. Essential nursing care, often referred to as the ‘Fundamentals of Care’, encompasses physical, psychosocial, and relational care activities required to maintain patients’ comfort, dignity, safety, and well-being. These elements are integral to holistic nursing practice [, ]. In the ICU, essential care includes personal hygiene, comfort care, positioning, nutrition support, and communication []. At the same time, ICU care is delivered in an increasingly complex and technologically advanced environment that requires specialised expertise and continuous clinical oversight. In the context of persistent nursing shortages, integrating care assistants into ICU teams may help alleviate workload pressures by taking responsibility for clearly defined components of essential nursing care [, ]. This approach aligns with ‘skill mix’ in an integrated care team. Although has been used inconsistently in the literature to describe various aspects of nurse staffing, including qualification levels, grade mix, educational preparation, clinical experience, nurse-to-patient ratios, and nursing care hours [, ], in this study skill mix addresses the collaboration of healthcare professionals with different competencies and roles who share responsibility for patient care []. Across Europe, ICU nurses and care assistants differ in educational preparation, competencies, and scope of practice [, ]. Although not without criticism, the European Qualifications Framework (EQF) focusses on learning outcomes formulated according to the knowledge, skills, and general competences at each education level [, ]. In general, ICU nurses are vocationally or bachelor educated (EQF levels 4 and 6, respectively), while care assistants are educated at EQF level 3. Integrating these professionals within one team combines different competencies and educational backgrounds, creating a skill mix model of care.