Which team member acts as a liaison between the health care facility and the media

Although it’s been around for close to 50 years, primary care nursing is often misunderstood or overlooked as a model for effective nursing care. To deal with any uncertainty about where it could be deployed, or where it might not be of value, let’s look at the basics of what the primary nursing model is and does.

First, realize that in addition to primary care nursing, other nursing-delivery models include:

• Team-based nursing: Pairing nurses for individual patient care
• Modular nursing: Similar to the team-based approach, where the unit is divided into quadrants and teams are assigned to each.
• Functional nursing: Nurses are each assigned specific care tasks and have a single-source direct report nurse.
• Float nursing: Nurses move from unit to unit on a set schedule, or are stationed in a permanent float pool

Each has its adherents, and each can and should be evaluated to see if it would work in the particular healthcare setting under review.

Primary Nursing Model Definition

Primary care nursing is when a single nurse is identified as the point of contact and primary caregiver for a patient during his or her particular hospital stay or other episode of care. As envisioned by staff nurses at the University of Minnesota in 1969, the primary care nursing team is composed of that lead nurse, who directly supervises the engagement of a licensed practical nurse and/or nursing assistant in that patient’s care. Further, the primary care nurse acts as care partner, serving as communications liaison between the patient and his or her doctor and other care team members. (In many facilities and systems, the position of nurse practitioner has been created to fulfill this role.)

The Primary n model is hailed by proponents as creating a better bond and trust relationship between patients and caregivers, thanks to that single-source relationship. They say that the patient’s care is elevated by having that single nurse overseeing its delivery, and that its structure empowers the nurse to utilize managerial abilities as well as deploy their best bedside care.

Adapting the Primary Nursing Care Model Has Challenges

Even so, it’s not an easy system to put into place for a variety of reasons. For one, the nurses who engage in it must have strong interpersonal skills. Nurses are known for their empathy, certainly, but large patient loads and nurse shortages mean that many if not most are working with many time constraints, and so may have seen those skills atrophy somewhat.

What’s more, becoming a primary care nurse means accepting responsibility for that patient’s outcome, to a degree. The nurse is acting as both caregiver and care manager, and that can be a difficult balance to maintain.

Resistance to Change

And lastly, there’s the usual resistance to change. It’s natural to be wary of a new system, even if it promises to solve many vexing problems that nurses face in today’s hospital and other care settings. Their chief goal is almost always to spend more time with patients and  grow those interpersonal relationships with patients and their friends and families. Done properly, primary care nursing provides the setting for those interactions to take place, and also can do much to improve patient safety and better outcomes, not to mention staff satisfaction and improved retention.

While liaison officer responsibilities vary depending on the company they work for, their strong organizational and communications skills make them critical to incident response.

A liaison officer is an employee who builds and maintains mutually beneficial relationships, facilitates communications and coordinates activities among two or more people, agencies or organizations. Often a member of the public relations team, liaison officers are company representatives that streamline operations and handle public communications, coordination efforts, incident response and conflict resolution. They act as technical or subject matter experts for the person, agency or organization they represent.

Liaison officers are the point of contact at enterprises during major events, such as emergency situations or leadership changes, like the appointment of a new CEO. They are also the primary people who communicate information about these events for promotional and brand perception purposes.

Types of liaison officers

Liaison officers work in the public and private sector and are often employed by educational institutions, governments, law enforcement, militaries and large organizations. While their communication-related tasks typically remain the same, liaison officers' specific responsibilities vary depending on the employer.

For example, a governmental multicultural liaison officer may work with foreign embassy workers to build relationships among countries and agencies to help overcome language barriers and cultural differences. At a university, a school liaison officer may negotiate among the superintendent, the board of education and the broader community of teachers, students and parents for conflict resolution.

In the military, liaison officers' responsibilities could include acting as commanding officers' personal representative to allied forces and as a communications bridge between the commander and other liaisons, commanders and staff officers.

Within the context of enterprises and infosec, the liaison officer is responsible for coordinating multiagency responses to a breach, hack or attack. The need for this role is clear: In the event of a serious breach, incident or other emergency situation, multiple resources and agencies must be brought to bear for effective incident response -- an effort that requires quick and efficient coordination.

Liaison officer responsibilities and skills

A liaison officer works in fast-paced, high-pressure environments and must be willing to take initiative to proactively solve conflicts and address issues. Liaison officer duties include the following:

• acting as contact points for all agency or organizational personnel;
• keeping lists of the agencies or personnel representing the person, agency or organization;
• facilitating meetings and cooperation among people, agencies and organizations;
• identifying problems in communications among these groups;
• collaborating and communicating with necessary constituents and the public; and
• conducting post-mortems when an incident is wrapped up.

As their primary task is to coordinate activities and communications among people, agencies and organizations, successful liaison officers must showcase strong organizational skills. They prepare and deliver verbal communications, such as press conferences, interviews, phone calls and face-to-face meetings, and written communications, including press releases, reports and social media updates, to colleagues, collaborators, the public and other stakeholders.

These are some of the top roles and responsibilities of a liaison officer.

Liaison officers must be self-motivated and strong leaders capable of promptly and effectively monitoring, coordinating and communicating strategic objectives. Liaison officers often serve as mediators, so their duties also include negotiating with others, developing and fostering relationships, getting people to understand others' points of view, and understanding their parent business and how it impacts its stakeholders.

Event reporting and analysis are included in liaison officer responsibilities. These involve compiling reports on incidents, events or updates to learn from them and improve future processes and relationships.

When it comes to experience and education, potential liaison officers should hold a postsecondary associate or bachelor's degree, often in business, criminal justice, international relations, management or political science, depending on the organization's field of business. Additional education may be required as well. For example, liaison officers working at public safety departments may need to complete mandated training requirements for that department.

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