Evaluating Humanisation in Intensive Care Nursing Practice: An Exploratory Study Using the HUMAS Scale
Ángela Vázquez Villar, María José Ferreira DíazABSTRACT
Background
Humanised care is central to nursing practice, yet sustaining relational and emotionally responsive care may be particularly challenging in intensive care environments characterised by technological complexity, clinical instability and repeated exposure to suffering. Humanisation should therefore be understood not as a single professional attribute, but as a multidimensional and context‐dependent aspect of nursing practice.
Aim
To explore humanisation‐related dimensions among nurses working in an adult intensive care unit using the Healthcare Professional Humanisation Scale (HUMAS).
Methods
An exploratory cross‐sectional study was conducted among 32 nurses working in an adult intensive care unit. Humanisation‐related dimensions were assessed using the Healthcare Professional Humanisation Scale (HUMAS). Descriptive analyses were used to examine scores across the dimensions evaluated by the instrument.
Results
Sociability showed the highest mean score (4.4), followed by self‐efficacy (3.9), optimistic disposition (3.7), affection (3.6) and emotional understanding (2.9). These aggregated means describe a numerical pattern within this sample. In the absence of reported measures of variability or statistical comparisons, they cannot establish differences between dimensions or explain how nurses expressed these attributes in clinical practice.
Conclusion
The findings provide an exploratory description of humanisation‐related dimensions among intensive care nurses and suggest that humanisation in this setting should be considered as a multidimensional construct. Further research using larger samples and more comprehensive statistical analyses is needed to examine these dimensions and their expression in intensive care practice.