Introduction
This paper discusses the nursing care delivery model, including advantages and disadvantages. In all aspects of nursing professional practices, there is a need to link good theory and best practices. Theories of nursing practices, which guide nursing care delivery models, offer explanatory frameworks to understand nursing practices within the right contexts. As such, they help nurses to define issues under study, describe nursing practices and perhaps predict future outcomes and behaviors. Theory and practice in nursing tend to congregate to formulate reputable nursing care delivery models that are applied in care provision in healthcare facilities (Fairbrother, Chiarella, & Braithwaite, 2015).
In fact, nursing care delivery models are considered imperative to nursing practice because they assist nurses to address critical nursing care issues central to positive outcomes and nursing policies. Based on nursing frameworks, results have shown that nursing models guide nursing staff organization and care delivery, which are critical factors that influence patient outcomes in healthcare settings (Dubois, et al., 2013).
The Choice of Nursing Care Delivery Model
Currently, four major models of nursing care delivery have been identified. They include primary nursing, individual patient allocation, functional nursing, and team nursing (Fairbrother et al., 2015). This essay focuses on team nursing as an effective model to meet rapid changes and dynamics in healthcare settings.
Team nursing
The team nursing model of care delivery is based on the framework of nurse-patient relations and related tasks formulated within a humanistically driven nursing team construct (Fairbrother et al., 2015). The model is based on Roger’s humanistic organizational psychology (Fairbrother et al., 2015). After the spread of humanistic psychology principles into the healthcare sector, team nursing became popular between the 1950s and 1970s but declined as other models emerged. However, the model was reintroduced in the 2000s as a response to nursing skill shortage, to improve skill mix and various levels of expertise.
Advantages
Team nursing offers increased skill mix and higher levels of nurse expertise, especially in healthcare facilities with inadequate resources. Literature has demonstrated that team nursing led to fewer cases of intravenous and drug-related errors (Fairbrother et al., 2015). In addition, a significant interest in teamwork among nurses has been observed, and this opportunity has provided modes of integrating emerging, changing and developing nurse functions. Team nursing, therefore, promotes collaboration among nurses in healthcare facilities.
Nursing practice is now more critical than ever because of specific concerns related to poor staffing and nurse retention. As such, it is now increasingly acknowledged that new nurse graduates need supportive structural environments and team support during their early periods of practice, and team nursing offers this opportunity. Team nursing shows that the nurse is not an autonomous professional and can, therefore, collaborate with other professionals to deliver the best quality of care to patients.
Nurses understand the healthcare system because they are insiders. They also comprehend facility-related cultures and infrastructure, which could enhance coordination and collaboration to deliver positive outcomes to patients and other stakeholders (Yeung, 2016).
Disadvantages
Team nursing is most likely to lead to the loss of certain individual patient-nurse relations. In fact, it could lead to minimal accountability. Hence, the overall quality of care may diminish.
Self-evidently, the overall success of team nursing relies on specific events that take place within the team. An uncoordinated team may not yield the desired results.
Further, recent studies on emerging trends in team nursing have demonstrated that patient allocation is widely practiced, but specific task allocation is so rare (Fairbrother et al., 2015).
Conclusion
From various studies, it has been established that team nursing focuses on providing holistic and professional care (Dubois, et al., 2013). It has been able to attain this through skillset stratification and then working together to complement other nurse roles in care delivery. The best result however can only be achieved when there is sufficient rigor to support robust, safe and effective delegation of roles and task allocation.
The team nursing model of care can help nurses to provide a safe and effective approach to task delegation and decision-making (Yeung, 2016). Moreover, it can provide the best structure for nurse support and mentorship. In fact, modern approaches to team nursing emphasize improved interaction, teamwork, and role sharing between senior nurses and junior nurses. Once an effective team has been established, team nursing can then deliver improved nurse-patient closeness and accountability. The model is recognized because of its focus on teamwork and team structure and promotion of the use of multiple skills obtained from different experience levels. As such, it has enhanced nurse retention, specifically among new nurse graduates.
As previously noted, the theory has been the principle that guides nurse practice. The recent reintroduction of team nursing was a response to limitations noted in individual patient allocation, which emphasized a one-to-one nurse-patient relationship. In this regard, evidence-based practices have been core to nursing theory and practice (Stevens, 2013). In fact, some scholars have asserted that the current professional nursing theory is chaotic and offers little input to promote the nursing practice as a distinct element in healthcare (Fairbrother et al., 2015). Therefore, it is important for nurses to focus on evidence-based practices to advance team nursing.
Today’s nursing environment is challenging, dynamic and resource-constrained. Nurses must work in an increasingly complex environment with limited resources that requires a mix of skill sets. In this context, team nursing has been identified as the most suitable model because it offers the benefit of advancement practically. Besides, the model is classified as the most flexible to account for the nursing workplace known for continued hierarchical variations and constant changes in work culture.
It is further demonstrated that team nursing is suitable for acute care nursing (Stevens, 2013). In fact, team nursing is considered the most relevant alternative in modern nursing. Team collaboration, for instance, ensures that acute nursing assesses skills, expertise and experiences, as well as other economic, social, organizational, and technological factors that influence nurses, nurse practices and healthcare facility environment (Stevens, 2013). Available evidence also suggests that team nursing is widely used because of its benefits (Fairbrother et al., 2015). Team nursing is rooted in a theoretical concept that offers nurses an opportunity for practicing and improving nursing contribution and patient outcomes.
Another study noted that it was difficult to ascertain the cost-benefit of team nursing over other nursing care models. Overall, team nursing was the most appropriate to support nurse development, collaboration and skill mix development among inexperienced nurses (Fernandez, Johnson, Thuy, & Miranda, 2012). Team nursing, just like any other care model, is relevant to nursing practice and the future of nursing and patient outcomes. It offers a better framework for nursing roles while incorporating vital aspects of nursing core beliefs, holistic assessment, and nurse care.
References
Dubois, C.-A., D’amour, D., Tchouaket, E., Clarke, S., Rivard, M., & Blais, R. (2013). Associations of patient safety outcomes with models of nursing care organization at unit level in hospitals. International Journal for Quality in Health Care, 25(2), 110 – 117. Web.
Fairbrother, G., Chiarella, M., & Braithwaite, J. (2015). Models of care choices in today’s nursing workplace: where does team nursing sit? Australian Health Review, 39(5), 489-493. Web.
Fernandez, R., Johnson, M., Thuy, D., & Miranda, C. (2012). Models of care in nursing: a systematic review. International Journal of Evidence-Based Healthcare, 10(4), 324–337. Web.
Stevens, K. R. (2013). The Impact of Evidence-Based Practice in Nursing and the Next Big Ideas. OJIN: The Online Journal of Issues in Nursing, 18(2), Manuscript 4. Web.
Yeung, W. W. (2016). Post-operative care to promote recovery for thoracic surgical patients: a nursing perspective. Journal of Thoracic Disease, 8(Suppl 1), S71-S77.