4 Nursing Care delivery systems that will help you to interact better with your patients

Have you ever heard about Nursing Care delivery systems in a medical environment? If not, no worries we will explain to you how they work.

These systems describe how organizations approach the care delivered to their patients. These make the work easier in terms of communication and interaction with patients achieving efficient, effective and timely care.

But, what the basic elements of a nursing care delivery system?

• The nurse.
• The patient or group of people.
• The events occurred including interactions with family and friends.

Here we will explain e of the most popular ones in medical practices:

1. Work system per patient

When sufficient human resources are available, the method of choice is the work system per patient. Moreover, it consists of attributing to the staff a certain number of patients. They are classified according to the type of health problems.

Advantage:

• Comprehensive care
• It favors the nurse-patient interrelation
• Continued care.

Disadvantages:

• Its main disadvantage is that it can only be used when there is enough staff.
• It is not advisable to assign more than 10 patients to a nurse. The recommended indicator for this system is six patients per nurse, per shift.

2. Function work system

When your staff is not sufficient, the work is assigned by functions. For example, routine activities, such as the laying of beds, cures, administration of medications, taking vital signs and other similar ones. Moreover, these are distributed equally among the nurses of the service.

The purpose of this system is to perform urgent and routine activities quickly. It is recommended to apply this system for educational purposes, for example: reinforce the learning of a technique, achieve skills and abilities.

Advantage:

• Reinforcement of learning techniques or procedures.
• Improvement of skills and abilities.

Disadvantages:

• Depersonalize nursing care, prevents providing comprehensive care.

3. Mixed Work System

It consists of assigning work by patients and by functions. Only those patients who have severe conditions, or need special treatments are assigned. This is recommended when the service staff is insufficient. It is the most used system.

Advantage:

• It facilitates the distribution of work.
• It promotes interpersonal relationships.
• Promote teamwork.
• It unifies performance criteria and as a consequence the operation of all personnel with previously agreed protocols.

Disadvantages:

• Not all patients receive individualized nursing care.
• It should be used when there is not enough staff or distribution per patient is not possible.

4. Teamwork System

It is one of the systems with the greatest benefits. These consist of forming functional work teams with professional and non-professional nurses. They are in charge of the integral care of a number of patients from admission to discharge.

The leadership of the group is assumed by a nurse, who is directly responsible for the care provided to the patient. It is necessary to know how to administer the personnel and make a correct delegation of functions and of the corresponding authority.

Advantage:

• Provides comprehensive attention.
• It fosters interpersonal relationships nurse – nurse and nurse-patient.
• The quality of care provided can be assessed.
• The care is continued.
• The patient knows the staff responsible for their care.

To clarify, depending on how you want to address your patients and workload, the combinations of various systems might be the best way to go. Most important, it is necessary to understand the advantages and disadvantages, and using the correct system for your workplace.

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Links:

• https://www.ncsbn.org/index.htm   The National Council of State Boards of Nursing
• http://www.doh.state.fl.us/mqa/nursing/index.html   The Florida Board of Nursing