Emerging Models of Care: Transitioning to a New Way of Being a Nurse

This novel model offers the opportunity for nursing to address social challenges toimprove patient and population outcomes. The nursing workforce is the mainstay ofhealth care delivery systems worldwide. Plagued by cyclical workforce shortages, thenursing profession is now on an untenable path. The deficit of nurses prevents the fulluse of the most prevailing RN-heavy acute care staffing models of the last decades. Itis critical that the workload of any care delivery model, traditional or novel, be based on reasonable expectations. New models would ideally not only assure patient care canbe accomplished with the existing workforce but would also improve on the outcomesable to be produced. Models that introduce an expert virtual RN to a bedside team of aRegistered Nurse and a non-RN care partner offer a unique vehicle for bringing skillednursing care to patients in acute care setting. Trinity Health began scaling their VirtualConnected Care™ model in 2021. The model also brings needed mentoring to earlycareer nurses, offers new ways to express key elements of nursing, and enhances therole of the patient as decision-makers in their own care.