Is the Team Nursing Model Right for Your Facility?

A standardized nursing approach is essential for consistently delivering quality patient care and streamlining workflow across teams. One increasingly popular nursing framework — the team nursing model — has gained traction as nursing shortages compound healthcare staffing challenges. In this model, a patient is assigned to a team of nursing personnel, leveraging individual skills and strengths to maximize efficiency while still facilitating a person-centered, relational approach to comprehensive patient care.

Beyond answering the question, What is team model nursing care? this article will provide key background information on the framework, helpful real-world examples of its clinical application, and a comprehensive analysis of its advantages and disadvantages. Using this helpful guide, you can make an informed decision on whether this model is the best fit for your facility’s needs.

Nursing Care Delivery Models: Team Nursing

The team-based framework is one of four foundational nursing models. Its method of task distribution resembles the delegation aspects of the functional nursing model, but its patient assignment continuity mirrors that of the primary nursing model. Further distinctions between these well-known frameworks are explored below.

Functional Nursing Model vs. Team Nursing

Both these models leverage individual scope, knowledge, and clinical skills by assigning specific staff members to certain care tasks.

• In the functional approach, a nurse is assigned to that task (rather than to a patient), and fulfills that duty for every patient within their designated unit, ward, or facility.
• In team nursing, a group of staff are assigned to particular patients and tasks — they have set care requirements that they fulfill for specific patients.

Team Nursing vs. Primary Nursing

Both of these models allow for more care continuity, facilitating closer patient-staff relationships by assigning patients to a consistent caregiver (or team of caregivers).

• In team nursing, a group of staff care for each patient, combining their abilities to ensure comprehensive care coverage.
• In the primary approach, one nurse is responsible for the comprehensive care of a single patient.

When Was the Team Nursing Care Delivery Model Adopted?

Team nursing was first introduced by Eleanor Lambertson in the 1940s to address nursing shortages after WWII. It resurged in the mid 20th century (once again, in response to staff shortages), and was refined to accommodate modern patient care. The model allows facilities to apply the efficiency-minded approach of functional nursing, while keeping the consistency and holistic measures of the primary nursing system, shown to improve patient experiences and outcomes.

Team-based approaches became more widespread in acute settings during the COVID-19 pandemic. Since then, there continues to be a push for collaborative assignments to manage the complexity of patient needs amid ongoing staffing challenges.

Team Nursing Model: Examples in Practice

This model is designed to address complex (often acute) patient needs. Because of this, it’s easy to wonder, What is the team nursing model of care’s usefulness away from hospital settings? Examples of the model’s application in acute (and non-acute) healthcare settings are reviewed below to help you appreciate its cross functionality.

In Acute Care (Hospital) Settings

This model works well across a wide range of specialities and hospital units. For example, in a pediatric oncology unit, a patient may be assigned to a care team with an RN, LPN, and CNA. The oncology RN delegates care tasks among the team members according to scope and individual strengths.

In this scenario, the RN accesses the patient’s port and begins the ordered chemotherapy regimen. Medication administration (for symptom management) is delegated to the LPN while the CNA assists with comfort measures. Sharing these tasks, the staff are able to spend quality time with the patient and family, building the supportive relationships that help all those involved navigate the stress of the patient’s uncertain prognosis.

In Outpatient Settings

At an outpatient orthopedic clinic, a nursing team works together, addressing perioperative patient needs. An APRN delegates vital signs and initial intake questions to the patient tech, and suture removal with wound assessment to the RN, while maintaining responsibility for the postsurgical evaluation and treatment plan. This collaborative workflow helps them progress efficiently through their caseload of assigned patients without compromising the individualized attention that their patients value.

What Is theTeam Nursing Model’s Best Use Case?

As shown above, this model can be applied in a variety of environments. However, healthcare settings with high patient volumes are often best suited to leveraging this model’s approach. It may also be ideal for settings where patient care is complex, necessitating the oversight (and intervention) of multiple professionals at any given time. Additional facility considerations include:

• Availability of staff.
• Diversity of skillsets and staffing scope.
• Leadership training (or readiness).
• Current collaborative culture and team dynamics.

The latter consideration is important. If teamwork is currently an issue within your facility, the team model may exacerbate tensions that already exist by forcing proximity and highlighting communication breakdowns.

Team Nursing Model: Advantages and Disadvantages

Advantages of team nursing model use must be weighed against its possible disadvantages to determine whether it’s the best fitting framework for your facility. To help you decide, refer to the comprehensive lists of pros and cons below.

Want Smarter Strategies to Strengthen Your Staffing?

If the benefits of team nursing model use outweigh the disadvantages, it may be the right framework for your facility. You can manage its associated risks using our robust facility guides and healthcare best practices to facilitate safer patient care through expert-backed standards and tips.