What Is Clinical Care? Overview and FAQ

Clinical care is a common phrase, but it’s often misunderstood as simply the job. However this commonplace understanding doesn’t always capture the complexity of this important healthcare function. So, what is clinical care exactly? It’s not simply healthcare, or even the provision of healthcare. Instead, it refers to the hands-on level of intervention in a series of healthcare levels which identify how people receive their health education, diagnosis, and treatments.

Here’s a deeper look at clinical care and its patient-centric function, with answers to other common questions.

Why Does the Clinical Care Definition Matter?

Models — like the different levels of population, from the individual to systems — are generally incorporated into nursing education to illustrate how a nurse’s job shifts along the community continuum. However, the broader subject of the hierarchy of healthcare often gets overlooked. The nuances of care types within this hierarchy should be considered vital for nurses just like the details of population type.

The potential to misunderstand the various levels of care could unintentionally keep nurses from fully comprehending the system they operate within. This, in turn, could result in missed opportunities to advocate more effectively for patients and themselves.

Understanding Clinical Care: FAQ

To help you get a better understanding of clinical care and how it fits within the healthcare continuum, we’ll answer some frequently asked questions.

What is clinical care’s role in the hierarchy of healthcare?

The hierarchy of healthcare has four key components:

• Government legislates how healthcare is practiced in the U.S. and determines laws that protect patients (like HIPAA, for example).

• Standards, quality assurance, and accreditation systems set the standard for the delivery and safety of care. Examples include state boards of nursing and the Joint Commission.

• Hospitals are where patients receive diagnostic and therapeutic care for acute or chronic conditions such as injuries, disease processes, or rehabilitation requirements.

• Patient and community level performance of care (often in an outpatient setting) includes injury prevention programs hosted by a local trauma center, or a preventative annual health exam with a primary care provider (PCP).

Clinical care occurs only at the hospital and community levels of this hierarchy. These are the domains where health professionals will have direct patient contact and provide hands-on care that addresses a specific health need.

Is there a difference between clinical and medical care?

Medical care is a broad term that encompasses everything within the bottom tiers of the healthcare hierarchy, from medical research to surgical intervention. It serves as an umbrella for clinical care, which is more limited because it only happens when there is direct contact with the patient.

Example:

A histology lab technician working to grow and finalize biopsy results for a patient is performing crucial medical care, but it is not clinical as they will likely never have direct contact with the patient.

Is clinical care the same as clinical practice?

The terms are interrelated but not identical. Clinical practice guides care in the clinical setting, as it is the culmination of evidence, theories, and experience-backed knowledge that directs the way a clinician implements actual clinical care.

Example:

Clinical research may be part of a clinician’s clinical practice, but those efforts must be clearly distinct from when they provide clinical care to avoid legal and ethical implications.

What are the four levels of clinical care?

There are four levels of clinical care. Let’s quickly examine each before further exploring the question, What is clinical care at each level?

1. Primary

Probably the most recognizable, primary care is broad, often encompassing preventative measures, disease management, diagnostic efforts, and care for minor injuries or illnesses.

Primary care examples:

• Health and wellness screenings
• Immunization administration
• Performance of basic medical procedures like wound care

2. Secondary

This often occurs at the outpatient specialty level where specialty providers and support staff work in tandem with the PCP to improve outcomes around a certain issue.

Secondary care examples:

• Mole evaluations in a dermatology clinic
• Performance of stress tests in a cardiology clinic
• New insulin pump education in an endocrinology setting

3. Tertiary

Tertiary care usually encompasses hospitalization and the need for more specialized care than primary or secondary levels can offer. This level typically necessitates a large number of resources (such as specialty equipment) for adequate care.

Tertiary care examples:

• Intricate and specialized surgeries, such as neurosurgery
• Complex procedures, including organ transplantation
• Dialysis and severe burn treatments

4. Quaternary

Considered controversial, this level applies when a patient needs resources that go beyond most hospital capabilities, necessitating transfer to an institute that offers the absolute highest level of therapeutic services.

Quaternary care example:

• Continued injury treatment and management by level I trauma specialists after transfer from a facility without trauma level I capabilities.

What is clinical care support and how is it changing?

Clinical care support applies to any of the additional tasks, methods, systems, or personnel required to complete diagnostic and therapeutic care measures while a patient is in the clinical setting.

Clinical care examplesof that support may include:

• Certified nursing assistants performing vital sign checks
• A pharmacy technician packaging a patient’s medications into one bag for convenient delivery
• The hospital check-in process

As healthcare changes and technology continues to play a larger role in the care setting, the look of clinical support is shifting as well. One easy example of that is the growing use of self-service kiosks in hospital and clinic check-in processes.

Technology advancements often improve accessibility while streamlining workflow, but health leaders have an obligation to ensure that as support shifts toward more digital options, patient safety and staff wellbeing remain at the forefront of their implementation considerations.

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