Final answer:
The Total Patient Care model is used when a nurse is accountable for all aspects of care for a couple of patients in a critical care setting. In this model, tasks range from monitoring vital signs to providing specialized treatments like dialysis, within varied clinical settings such as the ICU.
Step-by-step explanation:
The nursing care delivery model used by a nurse who provides all aspects of care during a shift for two patients in a critical care area is known as Total Patient Care. Under this model, the nurse is responsible for the direct supervision of patient care, which is a holistic approach where they perform all necessary duties for their patients. Responsibilities may include assessing and responding to patient needs, administering medications, providing treatments like dialysis, monitoring vital signs, and ensuring that solutions and equipment are prepared for sterile procedures. This allows the nurse to focus on a limited number of patients, providing comprehensive, individualized care.
Total Patient Care requires a high level of skill and competence because the nurse must be able to operate in a variety of clinical settings, such as ICU, CGU, Emergency, and Medical Surgical environments. In this model, the healthcare team, including surgeons and anesthesia professionals, works collaboratively, ensuring that the recovery and care plans for the patient are clearly understood and followed through with the utmost attention to detail. An environment like the one on the Navy hospital ship USNS Comfort, where multidisciplinary teams worked in unison to provide intensive care during the COVID-19 pandemic, is an example of Total Patient Care in a critical setting.