Recent findings from the 2025 FutureCare Nursing survey reveal that CNOs are actively restructuring care delivery models to support team-based approaches — a shift driven by demands for greater staffing flexibility, safety, and care quality.
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Optimizing nurse staffing through evolving care delivery models
Historically, many healthcare systems have relied on the traditional primary nurse model to deliver care. While effective in stable environments, this approach often lacks the collaboration and flexibility needed to respond to fluctuating patient acuity and workforce availability.
In response, two significant shifts have emerged in patient care delivery models:
- Adoption of team-based care delivery models to improve staffing efficiency and collaboration
- Expansion of telehealth as a core patient care delivery model, extending services into the home
These evolving care delivery models in healthcare help organizations remain agile and efficient in their staffing strategies. By integrating team-based roles and virtual care pathways, health systems can maintain safe, high-quality care across diverse patient populations. The focus now is on institutionalizing these innovations — moving from emergency adaptations to sustained, structured approaches that support both nurses and patients alike.
Five key attributes of alternative care delivery models
The team-based model should take advantage of each team member’s talents and experience and provide an alternative framework to deliver care — especially in a disaster or crisis situation. The team-based model gives increased flexibility and agility and allows nurses to work at the full scope of their practice and licensure.
The key attributes of alternative care models include:
- Strong interdisciplinary collaboration
- A culture of knowledge sharing
- Task sharing and shifting
- Identifying and expanding core competencies
- Improved communication and coordination
Team-based care delivery models in healthcare gain new relevance
Many healthcare professionals had never heard of, much less worked in, a team-based care approach prior to COVID-19, but it is a care model that more-experienced nurses know well. In fact, the concept dates back to World War II. The military faced a shortage of nurses to care for patients, so trained ancillary healthcare staff and medics were deployed to work with nurses in a team-based model. That model was later adopted by the Veterans Administration health system and eventually spread to other hospitals.
The more current version of that model is like the traditional team model, but it’s different in two important ways. First, it relies more on an interdisciplinary approach to care by expanding to other healthcare professionals beyond nurses to manage critically ill patients. Second, teams are managed by a team leader who has knowledge and experience in critical care or specialty care and can oversee nurses and other personnel who are moved to the unit to assist with care. The newly onboarded healthcare professionals can become direct caregivers.
Because the model accommodates staffing agility, hospitals can quickly train support staff such as unlicensed assistive personnel, physical therapists, respiratory therapists, and others to assist with patient care.
Telehealth training is crucial for modern care delivery models
Telehealth, which gained momentum during the pandemic, has proven it can expand access to care — especially for patients who struggle to attend appointments in person. It can also help address social determinants of health (SDoH), which play a part in 80–90% of healthy outcomes for a population, by enabling providers to use virtual home-based visits to assess how patients’ living conditions affect the care they receive.
Effective telehealth, however, requires training. An overwhelming majority (77%) of faculty members at nursing schools believe that they need such training themselves before they can begin to incorporate what they learn into classroom content, simulations, and clinical experiences. Similarly, Chief Nursing Officers (CNOs) must implement training to help staff members understand why, when, and how to use this technology. They must anticipate potential barriers and carefully consider how to integrate telehealth into existing workflows. Because telehealth provides a window into patients' and caregivers' living conditions, staff can observe people in their home environments. Those being trained for telehealth visits must understand the nuanced dynamics of delivering care remotely.
Since the pandemic, many hospitals have formalized telehealth care delivery models in healthcare. Some systems now use virtual nursing roles for admissions, discharge planning, and patient education. Others are implementing hybrid care delivery teams where virtual nurses support bedside teams across multiple units — an evolution that blends technology with human connection.
CNOs must recognize that implementing these new models of care depends on three pillars:
- Improved access to evidence
- A commitment to health equity
- Support for nurses’ resilience
Where nursing leadership goes next in care delivery models
Today’s care delivery environment is defined not by crisis response, but by structural redesign. According to the 2025 FutureCare Nursing Survey, 8 in10 nurse leaders are actively advancing or piloting new care delivery models in healthcare — shifting from reactive adaptations to proactive transformation.
To meet growing demands, organizations must build agility into how care is delivered. That means ensuring nurses are confident operating within both traditional primary care models and team-based nursing models — and that they have the training needed to navigate the evolving dynamics of virtual care.
The emergence of team-based structures and telehealth-enabled services have proven they are not temporary solutions. They are foundational to patient care delivery models that can scale across acuity levels, staffing environments, and community needs.
This article has outlined two of the most promising care delivery models in healthcare, as well as the pillars required to support their success. But the mandate is clear: innovation is no longer optional. Nurse leaders must lead this transition with urgency, structure, and an unwavering focus on sustainable, high-quality care.
Access the whitepaper Reimagining Nurse Care Delivery Models in Response to Escalating Healthcare Pressures and discover the key anchors for transforming care through scalable patient care delivery models, with guidance on implementing team-based and virtual care frameworks.
