Conflict Management And Delegation Are Two Areas Encountered Daily By Nurses

One of the vitals skill required by the Registered Nurse is the skill to assign tasks to subordinates (Saccomanos and Pinto-Zipp 2011). When tasks are delegated to subordinates, the RN remains accountable (Nursing and Midwifery Council 2008). On the other hand, an individual who has been given a task also bears responsibility for the task and is answerable to the RN. Hence, delegation involves “responsibility, accountability and authority” (Sullivan & Decker 2005, p. 144). This essay will examine the role of the registered nurse in relation to delegation. Areas that would be discussed includes definitions of delegation, benefits, types of delegaton, nursing process in

ABSTRACT: Delegation refers to the practice of a registered nurse assigning certain tasks and activities to other people while still maintaining responsibility for the actions of the others to whom responsibility has been delegated. The act of delegating assumes that the delegator has a certain amount of trust in the person to whom they delegate. Additionally, quality communication is paramount in maintaining superior patient care when delegating tasks to others. One signifigant obstacle to delegation is ensuring that the proper tasks are delegated to the appropriate individuals. The organizational structure and leadership

Everyone has to deal with conflict: both in the workplace and personal lives. Fresh nurses too have to witness this at their new work setting.

Reyes, J. A. (2016). Nursing Delegation Guidelines for Nurses and Advanced Practice Nurses. Iowa Board Of Nursing Newsletter, 35(3), 1-4.

Health care is continuously changing. In the past several years there has been a large shift in the focus in hospitals. The focus has changed from the staff to patients, patient satisfaction, and cutting costs in order to budget more tightly (Tarrant & Sabo, 2010). Because of this, along with the extreme increase in a number of patients seen and the acuity of the patients, nurses are being overworked. As a result, role conflict and ambiguity is becoming an issue. The purpose of this paper is to discuss role conflict and ambiguity, its significance, and its application to nursing.

Communication is a tool that nurse leaders should master to send information, perception, and understanding to achieve work activities and goals. Effective communication involves clear and direct messaging of thoughts and ideas. The three elements that leaders utilize when creating and enhancing effective communication are trust, respect, and empathy. For this paper, I will discuss some of the issues found in chapter seven’s critical thinking exercise. Nurse Olivia Witte, who is in charge of an interdisciplinary team, faces several issues regarding communicating with the organization’s physicians about a critical pathway development for ventilator-dependent patients, the dietician who wants to integrate dietary protocols for the pathway, and a home health care representative who is absent from meetings because of accreditation survey work.

When needed, nurses can ask for assistance from their peers or delegate patient care tasks to increase their productivity. Implementing either strategy requires an understanding that with either task there are specific responsibilities and accountability. Nurses must have an understanding

If I was faced with this situation and my charge nurse approached me and asked me to help, I would start by looking at my acuity of patients and focusing my attention on making sure I would be able to still provide safe, effective, and efficient care to the patients I have now, on top of adding another patient to my workload. I think we are all on the same page because the main goal is to make sure we all provide safe and effective care at all times. During the staff meeting, I would step up and help the charge nurse motivate everyone to help solve the issue, I would do this by doing the following: asking my co-workers questions, such as how can we solve this; what type of patients they are caring for already; volunteering to share a patient with another co-worker; explaining to everyone that we can do this (communication and encouragement is the key to solving problems in my eyes); can we divide up workload to switch things around for everyone (maybe someone has worked with the patient before and knows how to care for them safely and efficiently); and the list could go on.

Inappropriate nurse staffing is of concern in today’s health care system with the overly stressed workloads that nurses face today. Appropriate staffing is essential to achieve quality and safe patient care. One way to implement safe care is to have mandated nurse-patient ratios. According to

There are legal responsibilities that we have as professional nurses. Because of the nursing shortage, one of the major issues of concern is staffing. Inappropriate staffing can threaten patient's safety. Inadequate staffing can also affect the nurse's health,

Charge Nurses Staffed with Patients After completing clinical hours on a Medical-Surgical unit in Aria Jefferson Health Hospital for ten weeks, one of the problems that came to light was the fact that charge nurses are staffed with patients despite their responsibilities as a resource to the floor. This is a result of the unit having a shortage of nurses. Generally, the day shift has five nurses that are fully staffed about five or six patients, while the night shift usually has four nurses working which means they all have six patients. Yet for both shifts, charge nurses generally are staffed with five or six patients and are expected to complete their duties as the lead nurse for the shift, too.

The simulation exercise presented a complex situation when Charge Nurse Janice didn’t have enough nurses in her unit and the VP of Support Services called and her about the scheduled meeting. At the start of the shift, she responded unprofessionally to the situation by giving directions to the staff while on a personal call and reacting negatively to any patient update provided by the staff. Janice also created a bad impression to Elise, the new nurse, when she asked about her assignment. Janice addressed the patients’ names with the procedures they had. Knowing that there was a situational problem, Janice should have communicated properly and emphasized to the staff about teamwork to facilitate the workflow in the unit. Elise is new and inexperienced, but Janice could have utilized her help with basic tasks as long as she had been directed and coached properly.

I was particularly impressed by way this meeting dissected critical issues. The participants of this gathering welcomed openness and honesty from all. This meeting investigated ethical issues regarding patient care, and scenarios in which one’s discretion licensed him/her to question a patient’s judgments. This gathering also addressed the issue of productivity, in terms of sustaining it and enhancing it amid a taxing and demanding environment. The participants then proceeded to address common relational issues, which involved disagreements among nurses, and conflict mitigation. After witnessing the dynamics of this meeting, it became readily apparent that conflict

According to Tabak and Koprak (2007) a major source of stress among nurses is related to conflict between nurses and physicians leading to not only a substantially higher level of stress, but also to job dissatisfaction. Given these implications it is imperative to resolve conflict within the workplace. In the case of Jane’s situation with Dr. Smith, a staff meeting should be held to “addresses [the] particular challenging issue...for which signs of conflict already exist” (Porter-O’Grady & Malloch, 2013, p.125). Not addressing the conflict that is already noted will give the impression that the staffs concerns are being undermined and ignored. It is important to recognize and address any issues at hand early (Porter-O’Grady & Malloch, 2013)

After further review of the case study, conflict management among team members needs to be addressed. Resolving conflict can often be like a constant balancing act among the opposing needs and interests; conflict can be unpleasant and stressful (Haraway & Haraway III, 2005). Conflict manage is essential for the success of healthcare organizations. Learning, as an organization, to constructively manage and succeed in conflict situations is a foundational construct of leadership and management (Ledlow, 2009). There are six different conflict styles: (1) accommodating, (2) avoiding, (3) collaborating, (4) competing, (5) compromising and (6) problem solving. After reading the case study, the surgical team is displaying conflict style of avoiding “potential disruption outweighs the benefits of resolution, gathering information supersedes immediate decision making, others can resolve the conflict more effectively and issues seem a result of other issues,” (Ledlow, 2009). Instead of going to the Physician Assistant, Nurse B should feel comfortable speaking to the surgeon with her questions and concerns.