Critical Review The article by Swickard et al considers the role of the American Association of Critical-Care Nurses Synergy Model for Patient Care in relation to transporting patients between hospital settings for increased levels of care. It reveals the fact that the aforementioned synergy model is a patient-centric one in which providers attempt to match a patient’s characteristics with a particular nurse’s competency to achieve patient goals (Swickard et al, 2014, p. 16). The article was insightful because it demonstrated the need for such an approach in situations in which the care provider may or may not be aware of each of the factors influencing how successful transporting the patient is.

The article by Montgomery et al focuses on the applicability of the synergy model of care in rural settings. It deconstructs the theory behind this care model, rural theory, and rural nursing practices. Analysis of “the four major concepts of the metaparadigm” (Montgomery et al, 2017, p. 87) associated with these concepts revealed that they were congruent to one another, and appropriate to be used in conjunction with one another. The article utilized this analysis to determine that although the synergy model is designed for critical care, it is worthy of expansion to rural nursing practices in general.

The information contained in this article and that by Swickard et al is a testament to the utilitarian nature of this care model. It is adequate for use in rural settins and for determining modes of transportation between hospitals.

The article by Shearer considers the variation in the mixture of skills for nurses in various states in Australia. Specifically, this work evaluates the influence of nursing assistants when paired with registered nurses in acute settings. The basis of the article is an open forum in which registered nurses discussed the merit of nursing assistants in the context of different facets of this profession. Some of the findings revealed that the work load of each of these groups was incommensurate. Registered nurses actually wanted nursing assistants to perform more tasks. The article also detailed the phenomenon of placing registered nurses with nursing assistants, and largely cautioned against it because of the...

The article reveals that it is not uncommon for nurses to work longer than eight hours; during the most cases, nurses are satisfied with their scheduling (Witowski et al, 2012, p. 2501). However, this article also alludes to the numerous drawbacks realized over the long term of nurses routinely working 12 hours shifts—or longer. These lengthy shifts directly correlate to career dissatisfaction and burnout, disadvantageously affecting both nurses and their employers in the long run. Obviously, nurses working 12 hour shifts or longer have less shifts scheduled during a pay period than those working eight hours or shorter.
The article by Dricoll et al indicates that there is a correlation between nurse to patient ratios and patient outcomes. This literary work denotes that in certain instances, lower nurse to patient ratios leads to decreased mortality rates (Driscoll et al, 2018, p. 6). The findings of the article were based on a review of the existent literature from 2006 to 2017. The authors were attempting to discern the effects of nurse to patient ratios on both patients and nurses. It was determined that higher staffing levels—resulting in lower nurse to patient ratios—contributed to decreased numbers of “medication errors, ulcers, restrain use, infections, and pneumonia” (Driscoll et al, 2018, p. 6).

A synthesis of the information gathered from each topic reveals that it is possible to amalgamate this information into a series of best practices regarding nursing in acute care settings. Perhaps the focal point of the amalgamation of the findings uncovered in the critical review of this literature is the model of care apropos to acute care settings—the synergy model. In order to best acquaint patients with the nurses whose traits yield the most value, it is necessary to provide those nurses what they need in terms of scheduling and patient ratios. It seems nurses should not work 12 hours shifts or regularly exceed 10 hours in a row, nor should there be a nurse to patient ratio so high that nurses cannot focus on those patients who are best suited…