Introduction
Every day nurses face diverse tasks that should be accomplished to guarantee effective care delivery and improved patients states. The given variety results in the existence of numerous approaches used by specialists to meet different patients requirements and choose the most appropriate way to solve particular health problems. Moreover, there are models of nursing care used by medical units regarding peculiarities of their functioning, frequency of certain cases, workers experience, etc. For this reason, the choice of the nursing model becomes a critical task as it stipulates outcomes and promotes the improvement of patients health. However, the functioning of any hospital is a complex issue that introduces numerous aspects that should be considered when making a choice. The alteration of the working environment might result in the necessity to reconsider the existing model and introduce a new one.
Current Nursing Care Model
For instance, observing the way nurses deliver care in a particular health unit, several factors should be mentioned. First, one specialist is responsible for delivering complete care for a small group of patients during the whole period of recovery (Nadeau, Pinner, Murphy, & Belderson, 2016). The given approach is considered efficient enough as could guarantee a continuum of care. In other words, a particular nurse who works with a constant group of patients becomes able to understand their needs better and guarantee improved outcomes. The model is called primary nursing which is a method of nursing practice that outlines the increased importance of the continuity of care provided by a certain nurse who acquires the needed knowledge during the treatment process (Nadeau et al., 2016). The model is used by numerous hospitals across the state to attain improved results and provide patients with individualized care.
Therefore, the positive effect of the implementation of the primary nursing approach in the real-life setting is evidenced by Nadeau et al. (2016) in their article. The authors state that medical units using this model could optimize their relationship-based care and increase patients satisfaction with the suggested services (Nadeau et al., 2016). Having conducted a study, the authors prove that 93% of patients prefer primary nurse care and are satisfied with the fact that a primary care team member is assigned to them (Nadeau et al., 2016). In this regard, the model becomes an efficient tool regarding nurses ability to meet patients requirements and align a continuum of care. In general, the authors admit the efficiency of the model; however, they also that its implementation in the real-life setting might be complex is the number of patients is bigger than usual, and more specialists are needed to provide care to them.
Klaasen, Groenewegen, Michel, and Wilson (2016) also delve into the peculiarities of the primary nursing approach. Discussing the primary aspects of this model, they state that the majority of health workers have the positive attitude to it; however, the models implementation could be too challenging regarding the administrative practices and other changes that should be made to create an appropriate setting (Klaasen et al., 2016). At the same time, further growth in the demand for this approach could be predicted. For this reason, Klaasen et al. (2016) outline the necessity to empower nurses for them to become able to perform diverse tasks and provide care to patients in the most efficient ways. At the same time, there are numerous barriers to the implementation of primary nursing across the state because of the lack of specialists and an increased number of complex cases that should be analyzed by a team.
Alternative Care Model
Regarding the information presented in these articles, the primary nursing could be considered an efficient model that contributes to a better understanding of a particular case due to its in-depth investigation of a single nurse. However, there are also some limits related to the complexity of the implementation of this approach and the lack of nurses. For this reason, very often team nursing is considered an appropriate alternative to the above-mentioned approach as its efficiency in terms of the modern healthcare sector remains high. Moreover, it could help to improve outcomes by organizing specialists and introducing efficient patterns for cooperation. In this regard, team nursing is considered a potent tool that is still explored by the health unit to delegate tasks and ensure that all patients are provided with the care they need at the moment.
Discussing the team nursing, Kalisch, Russel, and Lee (2012) state that nursing teamwork becomes an important factor that impacts the quality of care and final results. However, they admit the fact that there is a significant negative correlation between the specialists performance and the number of nurses comprising a team (Kalisch et al., 2012). For this reason, regarding the discussed approach, optimization could be achieved only by reducing the size of nursing teams and the efficient distribution of duties. At the same time, researches admit the enhanced performance of teams when emergent situations appear. Under these conditions, cooperation between nurses becomes a crucial aspect that preconditions positive results and guarantees specialists ability to deliver complex care to numerous patients suffering from diverse health problems. This fact contributes to the implementation of the model in units characterized by the high income of patients and by the lack of experienced specialists who could guarantee efficient care delivery regarding the primary nursing model.
These assumptions correlate with ideas suggested by Golden (2014) in her article. She emphasizes the unique importance of registered nurses and their role in the healthcare sector. Therefore, Golden (2014) states that if these specialists function in terms of a particular team, they can provide effective, efficient, and comprehensive care to patients who might experience divorce problems. For this reason, care teams become the primary tool to increase the continuity of care and improve patients satisfaction with the suggested services and outcomes. Golden (2014) is also sure that this approach becomes extremely efficient regarding the tendency towards the diversification of tasks nurses face when delivering care to patients. For this reason, the shift of priorities towards the use of specific care teams could be justified by emerging threats to the health of the nation.
Discussion
Nevertheless, turning back to the primary nursing model and the way it is implemented in the investigated health unit, there are several important aspects to be mentioned. First, nurses demonstrate enhanced efficiency when working with patients who belong to their group. It means that they possess enough knowledge to meet their basic need and provide care that will be the most efficient for them. At the same time, at the first stages of cooperation between a nurse and a group of patients a certain lack of information could be observed as a specialist still does not have all pieces of data needed to handle the situation. For this reason, the unit benefits from the use of the primary nursing model; however, there are still some problems that might appear if emergent or unusual situations occur.
Recommendation
Under these conditions, the functioning of the given unity could be improved by the implementation of team nursing model. As stated above, it is focused on the creation of a particular team headed by a leader responsible for the accomplishment of important tasks and provisioning of various aspects of nursing care to a group of patients. The given models main advantage is the possibility of using the most skilled workers with less experienced ones to promote the needed result. This combination helps to compensate for the lack of competence and provide additional training for nurses who are not as skilled as it is needed to involve them in primary nursing. Additionally, using this approach, the unit will be able to delegate tasks more efficiently and enhance its functioning in emergent cases.
Conclusion
Altogether, the diversity of tasks nurses perform today results in numerous approaches to the delivery of care they might choose regarding the peculiarities of a particular case. Investigating the functioning of the health unit, the use of the primary nursing model could be observed. It allows nurses to given direct care to a group of patients. At the same time, there is another model the team one, which revolves around the collaborative work of a team of specialists headed by a leader to distribute tasks and decrease the level of work stress and ensure that health workers will be able to function efficiently in emergent situations.
References
Golden, J. (2014). A nurse practitioner patient care team: Implications for pediatric oncology. Journal of Pediatric Oncology Nursing, 31(6), 350-356. Web.
Kalisch, B., Russel, K., & Lee, K. (2012). Nursing teamwork and unit size. Western Journal of Nursing Research, 35(2), 214-225. Web.
Klaasen, K., Groenewegen, T., Michel, L., & Wilson, S. (2016). From primary nurse to collaborative nursing care team: Early feedback on a new model. Healthcare Management Forum, 29(3), 121-125. Web.
Nadeau, K., Pinner, K., Murphy, K., & Belderson, K. (2016). Perceptions of a primary nursing care model in a pediatric hematology/oncology unit. Journal of Pediatric Oncology Nursing, 34(1), 28-34. Web.