Nursing Care Models
Nursing practice and service delivery is a critical field, which determines different processes in various health care systems. Nursing is defined by Swickard et al. (2014), as the process of protecting and promoting health through means of preventing presented illness and injuries, by administering correct diagnosis and giving right treatment which improves the health conditions of patients. Nursing also involves the advocacy of wellness among individuals, families, communities, and the state at large. Nursing care models, therefore, define the role of nurses, their accountability and responsibility while carrying out various duties. Additionally, through nursing care models, nurses stand in an autonomic position in making professional decisions with the aim of bettering nurse-patient relationship. In this case, nursing care models are used to define, identify and describe nursing care and also improve professional performance, thus making workflow in health care organizations smoothly. This paper seeks to identify a particular nursing care model as per Finkleman (2015), relate and differentiate the model with other sources and later on discuss the implementation and impact of new standards of nursing care.
Complimentary Model
In this system of patient care delivery, nurse extenders are used to carry out environmental duties as the assistant unit, giving the nurse in charge quality time to directly give the patient the appropriate care (Finkelman, 2016). This approach also involves training nurses in various fields to provide a comprehensive range of services. For example, a nurse based in the radiology department can be trained to work as a respiratory therapist thus providing extended care services and specialist services. I chose this model because it tends to incorporate nursing stuff adjustment and also increases flexibility, meaning that in case one first nurse is missing, another one will efficiently execute the duties without impairment. This approach is also cost-effective especially when there is a shift from nursing care to nursing extenders (Finkelman, 2016). Additionally, training of the staff in various fields of specialization enhances service delivery, hence, meeting the needs of a patient (Finkelman, 2016). However, this model requires nursing leadership to be effective.
The introduction of home-based care in our facility depicts the limitless boundaries of the roles nurses can play in offering equitable care. Nursing leaders and administrators have continued to train nurses in our facility on to handle patients and gain specialty skills to handle emergencies given the shortage in the number of care givers and physicians. Most nurses are now able to maintain an independent register of nurses and offer critical services such as cervical cancer screening with consultation rooms, especially during our monthly rural care programs. The focus has been on ensuring that during these programs, nurses can deal with emergency cases and help reach more people in their homes, which could be hard with a limited number of specialists. To effect these changes, our facility has encouraged physicians and specialists to offer training and assessment to nurses while dealing with different patients.
Potter et al. (2013) show that complementary care delivery is adopted with the aim of providing and maintain reliable and quality care while controlling costs incurred when providing health care services. The complimentary model ensures integrated management of complex patients throughout the entire period of sickness, to providing a healthy life for patients. Nevertheless, complementary care delivery should be practiced carefully, without ignoring the elements of communication and leadership as far as positive outcomes are expected (Potter et al., 2013).
Additionally, Doenges, Moorhouse, and Murr (2014) argue that complementary nursing care models are effective in helping individualize the care a patient gets. The authors note that such measures have been effective in helping address cases here patients are comfortable working with specific nurses. As such, diversity in the functions that a nurse can perform act as a stepping stone to improving care. Doenges et al. (2014) also note that this model provides nurses with an opportunity to create new networks by advancing their practice. Additionally, nurses can also work in collegial relationships with medical practitioners, which helps enhance the skills and effectiveness of both parties. Therefore, encouraging embracing of these new nursing roles provides nurses an opportunity to become certified and be able to prescribe medications that fits their practice and roles.
Changes in nursing care models has helped introduce new combinations of care to improve the quality of treatment patients get. For instance, complementary therapies are now widely used in managing cancer. According to Christina et al. (2016), use of complementary therapies has been substantially involved in the alleviation of pain symptoms especially during chemotherapy, hence, improving the quality of life. The role of nurses in these situations is amazingly incomparable. Nurses help and support patients who consistently need complementary therapies (CTs) by learning how such models work and their effectiveness in improving the quality of care. Within their capacity, nurses are expected to have know-how about the safety, workability, and effectiveness of Complementary Therapies and positive attitudes aiming at supporting patients who want to use CTs, which necessitates training to acquire skills on these new procedures (Christina et al., 2016). Indeed, nurses act as credible sources of knowledge and attitude towards providing quality complimentary services to patients, helping them in making informed decisions.
Current Nursing Care Model
Most modern nursing care delivery systems have embraced the suggested protocols by American Association of Critical-Care Nurses. A perfect example of this is the Synergy Model for Patient Care. Synergy practice demands that the nurse on duty should suitably match his/her capacity to the dire needs of the patients under care (Swickard et al., 2014). It also brings to board the main clusters of individual behaviors that each patient and associated family bring to the health center. Patient’s characteristics are highlighted and classified as being dynamic and span. They include; susceptibility, intricacy, inevitability, resiliency, involvement in decision making, taking a role in care, and resource availability.
On the hand, according to Cypress (2013), nurses have taken up the challenge to act upon the needs of patients in numerous ways. This include; clinical ruling and inquiry, compassionate practices, embracing assortment, encouragement of morality, and provision of a learning environment, teamwork, and creative thinking (Cypress, 2013). All these roles encompasses the element of knowledge, skills, experience and attitudes required to meet the patient’s needs and focus on positive outcomes. The aspect of patient-family-nurse interaction in this model enables the family to take an active role in home patient care, an indicator of quality patient care outcomes.
Recommendations
Health care organizations should put consideration the satisfaction model of care delivery for nurses. I propose this because, as far as a team may want positive outcomes, if the employees are unsatisfied, the results will be negative. According to Cherry and Jacob (2017), the patient satisfaction model differs from the complimentary model in a way that, it examines the quality of care by taking into consideration the interest of the patients. Patients’ satisfaction, in this case, serves as an indicator of efficient nursing care delivery. Cherry and Jacob (2017) describe the influence nursing care delivery has on patient satisfaction and vice versa. Results show that patient’s social demographic factors, expectations, information on diseases, communication skills, the level of involvement in the treatment process, nurse relationship, health care surrounding, and nursing competency influence the level of satisfaction (Cherry & Jacob, 2017). The way the health system is organized also change the response of patients to medications and the way nurses provide services.
In most current systems, nurses work tirelessly in ensuring patient safety and wellness; therefore, they need better treatment at work so that they can relate well and deliver as expected. Health care systems should at all costs prioritize and protect the wellbeing of its clients, financially and physically. For desirable outcomes, health systems should ensure that they provide nurses with healthy and favorable working environment (Cherry & Jacob, 2017). The accommodative environment is associated with greater job satisfaction and reduction in adverse health indicators such as mortality and morbidity rates. Nurses job satisfaction is directly related to the quality of services provided. For instance, when nurses are dissatisfied, patients will not be satisfied; because the work drive is rough leading to poor service delivery. Health care systems should also take a look at factors that may affect nursing care delivery. Lack of proper nursing care equipment and adequate nurses may hinder service provision in that; the patient demands will outshine the capacity of the hospital to offer required services (Doenges et al., 2014). Health administrators should, therefore, ensure appropriate staff scheduling, avoid overloading nurses and ensure that they pay them adequately to alleviate stress which will otherwise lead to poor nursing care.
Conclusion
Nursing models provide comprehensive and compassionate care to the patients. They range from traditional to modern and emerging model with each being applicable in different settings. The criteria for selecting models depend on economic factors and the availability of the staff. The role of nurses in providing nursing care in all models is paramount to both the patient and the health system at large. As far as nurses’ work hard to assure quality service, it should be noted that; positive relationship exist between nurses’ overall performance and the quality of the job they deliver. Being overwhelmed by work, reduced staff scheduling, work stress and inadequate training of nurses hinder service delivery as well as its quality. Patient satisfaction is seen to have less satisfactory effects to the nurses; this means that nurses should be well compensated for work well done and provided with a reliable environment for work
Reference
Cherry, B., & Jacob, S. R. (2017). Contemporary nursing: Issues, trends, & management (7th ed.). St. Louis: Mosby.
Christina, J., Abigail, W., & Cuthbertson, L. A. (2016). Nurses’ Knowledge and Attitudes toward Complementary Therapies for Cancer: A Review of the Literature. Asia-Pacific Journal of Oncology Nursing, 3(3), 241–251. http://doi.org/10.4103/2347-5625.189816
Cypress, B. S. (2013). Using the synergy model of patient care in understanding the lived emergency department experiences of patients, family members and their nurses during critical illness: a phenomenological study. Dimensions of critical care nursing, 32(6), 310-321. doi: 10.1097/DCC.0000000000000005
Doenges, M. E., Moorhouse, M. F., & Murr, A. C. (2014). Nursing care plans: Guidelines for individualizing client care across the life span. Philadelphia, PA: F.A. Davis Company.
Finkelman, A. (2016). Leadership and management for nurses: Core competencies for quality care (3rd ed.). [Bookshelf Online]. Retrieved from https://online.vitalsource.com/#/books/9781323605547/
Potter, P. A., Perry, A. G., Hall, A., & Stockert, P. A. (2013). Fundamentals of nursing. St. Louis, Mo.: Mosby Elsevier
Swickard, S., Swickard, W., Reimer, A., Lindell, D., & Winkelman, C. (2014). Adaptation of the AACN Synergy Model for patient care to critical care transport. Critical Care Nurse, 34(1), 16–29. http://doi.org/10.4037/ccn2014573
