Total Patient Care and Team Nursing Models Essay

Total Patient Care

Total patient care is the oldest nursing care delivery model, which is also referred to as the case method or patient allocation. This model is widely used all over the world and relies primarily on the input of registered nurses (RNs) into patient care.

As explained by Gunawan (n.d.), in total patient care, “the RN is responsible for all of the care provided to a patient for a shift” (p. 2). Thus, if RNs work in 8-hour shifts, the patient will be attended to by three different nurses in one day. Total patient care requires the RN to attend to all patient’s needs during his or her shift (Gunawan, n.d.). Patients are allocated on a shift-by-shift basis, and thus it is unlikely that one nurse will follow a patient from admission to recovery (King, Long, & Lisy, 2015).

Total patient care has a variety of advantages and disadvantages that affect the implementation and use of this nursing care delivery model. First of all, it ensures the provision of comprehensive care and minimizes the number of medical errors, as only one nurse works with the patient throughout the shift (Gunawan, n.d.). Secondly, it improves communication between nurses and patients, which can help to promote patient satisfaction.

Moreover, it also enhances the cooperation between doctors and nurses in diagnosing and treating patients, as the doctor knows which nurse is responsible for all aspects of patient care for a shift. Total care management was also found to reduce the length of patient stay (Gunawan, n.d.) and to be more cost-effective than the primary nursing model (Fernandez, Johnson, Tran, & Miranda, 2012).

Finally, total patient care is the model that is most frequently used in nursing education programs, which enables recent graduates to be more efficient in providing care (Gunawan, n.d.). Overall, total patient care has a positive impact on many patients and organizational variables, which makes it effective in promoting better health outcomes and improving workforce characteristics, such as autonomy.

However, total care nursing also has some significant disadvantages. For instance, it requires one nurse to perform all patient care for the shift; this feature requires nurses working under the total patient care delivery model to have the necessary qualifications and experience in conducting a wide variety of care procedures. For organizations, this creates difficulties in recruitment and training, thus leading to higher costs.

It also decreases cost efficiency, as most of the procedures that could be performed by nurse associates are performed by highly qualified RNs (Gunawan, n.d.). The total patient care delivery model was also found to be associated with higher pain scores among patients and lower documentation practice scores (Fernandez et al., 2012), which can affect patient satisfaction and treatment outcomes. In general, total patient care nursing is an effective model of care delivery, which has relatively high costs for the organization. Thus, it works best when applied to a private health care setting, where the patients tend to have higher expectations regarding service and treatment quality.

Team Nursing

The team nursing care delivery model is also a popular nursing strategy that is competing with total patient care for popularity in general ward settings (King et al., 2015). Team nursing involves nurses with various skills, qualifications, and levels of experience working together as a group delivering care to patients (King et al., 2015). The RN functions as a team leader who oversees the decisions and actions of other team members and provides services requiring higher qualification and knowledgebase (King et al., 2015). In team nursing, individual nurses share the responsibility for patient treatment and health outcomes, which helps to promote responsible decision-making (King et al., 2015).

Gunawan (n.d.) reviews some of the advantages and disadvantages that are usually attributed to the team nursing model. First of all, the model helps to ensure that each team member’s skills and abilities are developed by promoting knowledge and experience sharing (Gunawan, n.d.). In the team nursing model, more experienced nurses work together with nurse associates and recent graduates, which has a positive impact on learning and skill-building. Secondly, team nursing can improve job satisfaction by increasing engagement and promoting effective workplace communication (Gunawan, n.d.).

Team nursing is also considered to be the most cost-efficient nursing care delivery model, as noted by Fernandez et al. (2012). This is because the number of RN is lower than the number of less experienced nurses, which decreases expenses on personnel.

Nevertheless, team nursing has some important drawbacks that require organizations to cons