Nursing Care Models Essay

Nursing care models serve as important foundations for decision making within the care environment. They influence the scope of tasks nurses engage in as well as how nurses relate to other healthcare professionals and patients in the course of care delivery. Though there may be no one-size-fits-all model, the choice of the appropriate model — obviously depending on factors such as the nature of the organizational setting and the availability of resources — is crucial. An effective model is important for achieving the desired patient, staff, and organizational outcomes. This paper discusses the use of two care models in the care setting: the case management model and the inter-professional practice model. The aim of the paper is two-fold. First, a description of the case management model as used at a practice setting known to the author is provided. Next, the paper recommends the inter-professional practice model as an alternative model that could be implemented to enhance nursing care quality, safety, as well as staff satisfaction.Nursing Care Models Essay

The Case Management Model of Care

The case management model is one of the common nursing care models. Dissimilar to most other models, the focus of the model is on patient-centered care, not the nurse-patient relationship (Finkelman, 2016). As the name suggests, the case management model involves assigning each case or a certain number of cases to a specific nurse (registered nurse [RN]). This approach is premised on the assumption that patients have complex health conditions and, hence, require a case manager to help them make use of the healthcare system more effectively. The role of the case manager is to plan, coordinate, evaluate, and advocate for the entire continuum of care required to meet the needs of a given patient (Plas et al., 2012). The case manager may at times work with other healthcare professionals, thereby enhancing inter-professional collaboration (Girard, 1994).