Collaborative Model of Care in Nursing Communication

Proposed Model

Nursing unit managers are responsible for choosing nursing care delivery models that will benefit the practice of the team and will ultimately improve patient outcomes. A collaborative model of care can be chosen for enhancing communication between nursing professionals and promotes their responsibilities with regards to making sure that patients receive the level of care that they need.

A collaborative model of care delivery is all about making nurses work differently and creating a work environment in which care providers distribute responsibilities in a way that will facilitate the most beneficial impact. The sharing of knowledge, skills, and training abilities between nurses is the core of the model that subsequently enhances the quality of care and creates opportunities for professionals to team up for patients wellbeing. In addition, the collaborative model allows patients to be involved in the planning of their care, final goals of treatment, as well as the expected dates of being discharged from a healthcare facility (Alberta Health Services, 2013).

Bringing the collaborative model of care to facilities requires some drastic changes in the way they operate. Therefore, as the framework is being implemented, nursing managers should develop ways targeted at a continuous evaluation of the progress based on the learning of stakeholders involved in the process. The evaluation can be performed through collecting feedback from patients and their families, surveying nurses, and physicians on whether the model is effective, as well as monitoring the overall quality indicators in a facility. Such indicators can include the rate of medication errors, the satisfaction of patients and the staff, measures of workload, patient and employee injuries, and self-reported outcomes of patients (Alberta Health Services, 2013). By monitoring the mentioned indicators, a nursing manager is able to conclude whether a collaborative model of care is beneficial to the facility in which it has been implemented.

Models Advantages and Disadvantages

Advantages of the chosen collaborative model of care delivery include the improved division of labor between nurses, greater creative input into the process of care, and stronger personal and professional relationships among nurses who collaborate on a regular basis. Improved division of labor is an essential benefit of the collaborative model, especially when it comes to complex tasks when one professional is unable to bring positive results. A nurse manager can divide responsibilities between several team members to make sure that all assignments are done instead of imposing a heavy workload on one or two nurses who will probably struggle with it. Creative input and stronger relationships between staff members are benefits of the model that arise directly from collaboration. The model encourages nurses to think about innovative solutions to problem-solving for improving patient outcomes, and because they have a common goal, their connections get stronger with time.

Disadvantages of the collaborative model include conflicting styles of work, faux leaders, and increased likelihood of groupthink. The last two disadvantages can arise in a nursing environment when nurses want to influence the decision-making process by imposing their opinion upon others. It is important to avoid situations when there are too many people trying to lead a group and/or influence the decisions made by a group (Khushwaha, 2015). When it comes to conflicts based on different working styles, they are inevitable because every nurse has his or her way of providing care to patients. During the collaboration, such differences are likely to come out and cause misunderstandings.