3. The Partnering with Patients Model of Nursing Interventions (PPM-NI)
Coalescence of our knowledge about PCC, the CA and complex nursing interventions has led to
the development of the following assumptions underlying the PPM-NI, which is represented in Figure 1.
The assumptions of the PPM-NI are:
1. People are valued as individuals. As such, their individual strengths and capabilities need to be
understood, as these will facilitate active participation in their care;
2. Nurses are ‘agents’ who have the capacity to make decisions and act on them to meet the needs
of individual patient care (i.e., to deliver an intervention); and
3. Nursing care centres on the needs of the person in the moment and how these needs can be met
through the care partnership.
Based on these assumptions, the concepts (i.e., characteristics) of nursing interventions grounded in
the PPM-NI model are:
1. Evidence based;
2. Cost effective;
3. Patient centred, delivered by nurses in partnership with patients;
4. Stepped or tailored to the individuals’ needs, capabilities, goals and to the context, including
family involvement;
5. Developed and tested in collaboration with end-users (i.e., patients and nurses);
6. Applicable across settings; and
7. Multi-level, adapted to different levels of intervention targets (patient, ward/department, organisation).
Table 1 provides provisional descriptions of these concepts. Nurses may use these concepts and
factors to help with their decision process when they are weighing up the benefits of interventions they
may use. As a result, the propositions that arise from these concepts are that nursing interventions are
more likely to be implemented and sustained in practice when they are based on the concepts
(i.e., characteristics) outlined above.
Although the PPM-NI requires further testing, it can readily be articulated into practice. The
following case study demonstrates the potential of this model in practice and its potential to influence
positive change. Furthermore, the case study demonstrates the importance of the factors outlined in
Table 1 when considering whether to use a complex intervention.