Case Method The case method was one of the earliest models of care delivery. A nurse was assigned to provide complete care for a client or group of clients for a defined period, usually 8 hours....

Case Method

The case method was one of the earliest models of care delivery. A nurse was assigned to provide complete care for a client or group of clients for a defined period, usually 8 hours. Sometimes referred to as private-duty nursing, this method was inefficient because one nurse provided all care to the client (Cohen & Cesta, 1993; Poulin, 1985). As shown by Grant and Massey (1999), this method was based on the holistic philosophy of nursing with a nurseto-client ratio of 1:1 to 1:5, but with the disadvantage of high personnel costs (pp. 34–35).