Applying the Synergy Model: Clinical Strategies

The Synergy Model describes a framework for nursing practice. Its hallmark is the linkage of patient characteristics with nurse competencies to achieve optimal patient outcomes.(1) Throughout time, nurses have made unique contributions to patient outcomes. We have often fallen short in describing or characterizing these contributions or giving appropriate credit to the significant and essential role nurses play in the healthcare system. In our current healthcare environment, a shrinking nursing workforce and increased consideration to expanding roles for non-nurse caregivers are a call to our profession to account for the varied and unique contributions nurses bring to optimizing patient outcomes. One method of articulating these contributions is the descriptive use of clinical exemplars. Patricia Benner 2 popularized the use of exemplars to capture the interpretive details of expert nursing practice development while researching the application of the Dreyfus Model of Skill Acquisition to clinical nursing practice. The American Association of Critical-Care Nurses Certification Corporation proposes the Synergy Model as a blueprint for the certification of acute and critical care nurses; however, the model offers much broader implications to us as we seek to describe the essence and benefits of expert nursing practice in relation to our patients ' needs and their subsequent outcomes. The following is one such example