Models of Nursing Care

Team Nursing Model

This is the model of nursing that makes use of a team approach to care for patients in the acute care setting. The team is comprised of a group of healthcare professionals in an acute care or inpatient set up. The professionals include; charge nurse, team leader, other nurses, patient care technicians and nurse aides. The team functions by having the charge nurse assign patients to the different team members. The nurses assigned to the patients delegate the tasks to nurse aide operating in the field of practice to offer actual care to the patient. In this model one nurse may be required to offer the medication while the nurse aide gives a bath and provides physical care. All this takes place under the supervision of the charge nurse. 

Article Review on Team Nursing

Ferguson, L., & Cioffi, J. (2010). Team Nursing: Experiences of Nurse Managers in Acure Care Settings. Australian Journal of Advanced Nursing, Volume 28 Number 4.

The article represents a study that was carried out with an aim of exploring and describing the nurse manager’s experience with a team-based approach to nursing care in health institutions. The study was carried out in medical and surgical wards in an acute care setting. The study revealed that the use of a team based approach benefited both the patients and the health workers. The managers regarded this option as suitable for nursing as it allowed the nursing staff with diversified experience and skill to offer care in safe manner under the close watch of more experienced staff.  The article reports that there was need to have the team leader undergo a staff development and support training to ensure they acquired the necessary clinical leadership skills suitable to help them perform their new role. The article is relevant in analyzing the operations of the team nursing model.

Zimbudzi, E. (2013). Discovering the Untapped Benefits of Team Nursing in Acute haemodialysis Unit of a Major teaching Hospital. Journal of Nursing Education and practice, Vol3, No 8.

This article provides necessary information on the often assumed benefits of team nursing in hospital set up. The research was carried out to evaluate the most appropriate nursing care model, between primary and team nursing in the acute hemodialysis unit. The study collected data before and after the introduction of team nursing model thereby providing an important means of determining effectiveness. The clinical charts were also reviewed before and after introduction of the trial. The research provides insights that support the application of team nursing model to the acute hemodialysis unit as it was considered where it proved to be effective as it did not compromise the level of patient care. The article considers the team nursing model as a more effective as compared to primary setting in this particular setting.

Article Review on Primary Nursing

Mattila, E., Pitkanen, A., Alanen, S., Leino, K., Luojus, K., Ramtanen, A., et al. (2014). The Effects of the Primary Nursing Care Model: A Systematic Review. Journal of Nursing Care.

The paper identifies that nursing care models offer an infrastructure under which care is organized and delivered to the patients and their families. Primary nursing model has been gaining its prominence since 1980s. The paper was developed with an objective of offering an understanding of the primary nursing model for patients, family members and the health practitioners. The article describes that under the primary nursing model, the patient care is offered by one named nurse throughout the patient’s admission in the hospital. All aspects to patient care such as planning and implementation occurs between the patient and the named nurse.  The nurse is thereby answerable to the patient, their family and the medical colleagues. The primary nurse delegates the duties to the associate nurses when off duty. In institutions adhering to this model, they normally adopt a flat organizational structure as the responsibility of patient care is equally distributed among the nurses.

Johansson, P., Lundstrom, K., & Heiwe, S. (2015). The Primary Nursing Care Delivery System Within a Haemodialysis Primary Nurses in Sweden. Clinical Nursing Studies, Vol 3, No. 4.

Primary nurisng is arguably a wide spread organizational system that is used in nursing with goals of reducing fragmentation of patient care. The system has been mainly adopted in haeomodialysis care though it was not originally designed for such kind of clinical service. The paper looked into means by which the model has been adapted to a hemodialysis setting and also assesses into the emotion impacts on the nurses offering the care. Haemodialysis is a complicated medical and technical treatment where the patient’s condition can be altered very quickly thereby requiring the nurse to be in a position of making quick decisions. The primary nurses and patients develop a unique relationship due the long hours and frequencies of their interactions.  The nurse adopting the primary nursing in dialysis have to maintain a close relationship with the severely ill patients  and strive to help them reduce the psychological stress thereby enhancing their patient satisfaction. Through this study, the primary nurses indicated that the expectation placed on their shoulder where they had to plan and coordinate every activity related to patient’s care, wishes, and practical matters and to spot any potential health related problem. This requires the nurses engaged in primary nursing model to have up-to-date information with regard to the patient and other diversified issues in the multi-professional.

Implementation of the Team-Based Nursing Model

The hospital management assigns three team care assistants to offer assistance to each physician. Two registered nurses and one certified medical assistant are also included to form the team. The diversity and number of the team players in the team is important for bearing the work load. The team care assistance form an integral part of the practice and ensure continuity for the patients on every visit. The team care assists to gather the patient information and offers synthesized information to the physician by presenting only the pertinent details. During the physicians visit to the doctor, the team care assistant plays the role of a scribe noting down the events and discussions held. The TCA also facilitates the discharge process and ensures that the patients understand the recommendations offered by the doctor.

Alternative Nursing care Model: Progressive Patient Care

Progressive patient care is a model of nursing care where patients are placed in units based on their needs of care. This depends on degree of illness as opposed to medical specialty. It is a method of planning health care facilities, staff and equipment in a manner that is essential for meeting the needs of every patient. The grouping of patients disregards the traditional grouping based on classification of disease and sex and classifies the patients as per their degree of illness and dependency on the nurse. The elements under this nursing care model include intensive care units, self-care units, intermediate care units, beds attached to out-patient departments. The intensive care units harbor the critically ill patients. Self-care units are used to deal with convalescent patients in need of investigation (Guarinoni, 2013). 

Conclusion

The organization of nursing care is determined by different factors such as economic conditions, leadership principles, and capability of hiring and maintaining staff. This paper presents findings based on observed team nursing model. The team based model was found to have a team of different medical practitioners under a team leader to offer nursing care. This is contrary to the primary nursing model that entails offering comprehensive and individualized care by the same nurse through-out the period. An alternative method to the above described nursing models has been found to be the progressive patient care where the patients are classified in units based on their level of illness and dependency on the nurse.

References

Ferguson, L., & Cioffi, J. (2010). Team Nursing: Experiences of Nurse Managers in Acure Care Settings. Australian Journal of Advanced Nursing, Volume 28 Number 4.

Guarinoni, M. (2013). Progressive Patient Care. The American Journla of Nursing, 649-655.

Johansson, P., Lundstrom, K., & Heiwe, S. (2015). The Primary Nursing Care Delivery System Within a Haemodialysis Primary Nurses in Sweden. Clinical Nursing Studies, Vol 3, No. 4.

Mattila, E., Pitkanen, A., Alanen, S., Leino, K., Luojus, K., Ramtanen, A., et al. (2014). The Effects of the Primary Nursing Care Model: A Systematic Review. Journal of Nursing Care.

Zimbudzi, E. (2013). Discovering the Untapped Benefits of Team Nursing in Acute haemodialysis Unit of a Major teaching Hospital. Journal of Nursing Education and practice, Vol3, No 8.