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Aim. To assess the level of correlation between two scoring systems: patient categorization according to the Croatian Nursing Council consensus and Nine Equivalents of Nursing Manpower Use Score (NEMS) and their ability to determine if the number of nurses working in the intensive care unit (ICU) is optimal to provide adequate nursing care, and to assess the level of correlation between the severity of patients’ illness and the level of nurses’ satisfaction with provided care. Methods. Research was performed in surgical ICU of the Clinical Department of Anesthesiology, Resuscitation and Intensive Care Medicine, University Hospital Dubrava, in the period between January 8th and April 14th, 2014. 256 patients aged 18-92 years were included in the study. Patient categorization and NEMS were calculated each day during the first 7 days of the ICU stay. NEMS was calculated using a pre-made table of variables and categorization was calculated using an electronic form included in nursing electronic patient files. Satisfaction of provided care was expressed using the Likert scale (1-5). Results. Study results have shown a moderate but significant level of correlation between the categorization and NEMS scores. Mean NEMS score during the first 7 days in the ICU was 26.93 ± 4.64 and the highest measured values were at day 4 (30.34±8.1) after which they started decreasing. Mean cumulative NEMS throughout the whole ICU stay was 269.3. According to the fact that according to NEMS scoring system one nurse can provide maximum of 45 points for 24 hours, the results have shown that a 10 bed ICU needs at least 5.98 (6) nurses to provide adequate level of care. Average categorization score was 57.83±4.29 and the highest recorded score was at day 7 (59.7±4.44). According to the categorization scoring system time needed to provide care for one 4th category patient throughout 24 hours is 10 or more hours. Since the description of the 4th category doesn’t specify what is the upper limit of time needed to provide care for each patient, 14 hours was used to determine a minimum number of nurses, and according to the categorization score 5.83 (6) nurses are needed in the ICU. Nurses’ satisfaction with provided care has shown a significant negative correlation with NEMS score and categorization score. Conclusion. Both scoring systems can be used to assess nursing workload in a surgical ICU. However, NEMS is simpler and quicker to use, more applicable, useful and should be routinely used in place of categorization to assess nursing workload in surgical ICUs. Assessment of Nurses’ Workload in Intensive Care Unit by Use of Scoring Systems Croat Nurs J. 2020; 4(1): 59-71 60 Vuković Lj. Assessment of Nurses’ Workload in Intensive Care Unit by Use of Scoring Systems. Croat Nurs J. 2020; 4(1): 59-71 Measurement of healthcare costs, as well as measuring the use of human resources in healthcare system is a challenging task, especially as it is both difficult and expensive to measure resource use in healthcare systems and clinical outcomes. These require development of special assessment tools that are practical, unique, reproducible and detailed enough to allow comparison between various institutions, patient groups and individual patients (3). Optimal number of nurses is a key prerequisite for quality of care in ICUs, however this issue is not as simple as it seems. The incidence of burnout and lack of work satisfaction are inversely proportional to the ratio of numbers of patients and nurses responsible for their care (11). On the other hand, more working places considerably increase costs, with limited financial resources being one important obstacle in employing more nurses at those workplaces. As a direct result of this mismatch, adjusted therapeutic indexes have been developed in order to optimally count, assess and distribute nurses in ICUs (12). The number of nurses in the ICU is of extreme importance and therefore the assessment of workload is currently the most reliable indicator for establishing optimal numbers of staff. As in recent period there has been a trend towards admitting elderly patients with more comorbidities into ICUs, in combination with newer treatment methods this has resulted in increase in nurses’ workload (13).