Delegation In Nursing

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

The National Council of State Boards in Nursing defines delegation as “transferring to a competent individual the authority to perform a selected nursing task in a selected situation” (National Council of State Boards of Nursing, Resources section, 4). When delegating, the registered nurse (RN) assigns nursing tasks to unlicensed assistive personnel (UAP) while still remaining accountable for the patient and the task that was assigned. Delegating is a management strategy that is used to provide more efficient care to patients. Authorizing other individuals to take on nursing responsibilities allows the nurse to complete other tasks that need tended to. However, delegation is done at the nurses’

The doctor felt he was operating with beneficence, but was in effect, violating the patient’s autonomy by not taking into account the patient’s desires as well as not fully explaining the treatment. As a young, inexperienced nurse, I failed my patient because I did not advocate for his desires. The patient subsequently died alone in a hospital bed, away from his wife. I learned by this ethical failure to always be a patient advocate, and it has defined my clinical practice for the last twenty years. This is why autonomy is so important to

Delegation in nursing practice will be discussed in this essay. Delegation will be clearly and concisely defined and described as following:

In nursing, delegation helps in making use of the talent or skills of another person. One nurse transfers interventions which are under his/her practice roles to another to another member of the healthcare team who lacks such powers authorized under their scope of practice. Delegation can only take place if it is in patient’s best interest.

Was the patient’s best interest at heart? Or was the physician trying to avoid a negative outcome? This is where collaboration among healthcare teams is vital to patient care and upholding patient wishes. Ultimately it is a nurse’s responsibility to advocate for the patient not only in respecting their wishes but communicating all available knowledge so that all parties involved can make and educated decision.

Delegation--Authorizing an unlicensed person to provide nursing services while retaining accountability for how the unlicensed person performs the task. It does not include situations in which an unlicensed person is directly assisting a RN by carrying out nursing tasks in the presence of a RN.

Nurses improve and save lives every day, which makes them the front line members of the healthcare team. The professional integrity of the nursing profession must always be maintained. The American Nurses Association (ANA) is an organization that seeks to advance and protect the nursing profession. The Standards of Professional Performance set by the ANA, ensure that the highest level of nursing care is given to the public. It is important for a nursing student to uphold these professional standards while in the classroom and clinical setting, in order to provide quality nursing care later in their career.

As a supervisor in my facility it is not uncommon to be asked to float a staff member to another area within the hospital due to staffing shortages. Two weeks ago, I was approached by my director to do just that. However, in this circumstance, I felt the request was inappropriate. The radiology registered nurse had more tasks to accomplish than normal and had requested that one of my nurses, a former radiology nurse, insert PICC lines for the afternoon. My nurse had been in the cardiology department for three years and had not placed a PICC line since leaving the radiology department. In my facility, it is a requirement that the nurse place a minimum of five PICC lines a year to be deemed competent, so from my perspective, my nurse was fifteen lines too short. However, in an attempt to make every effort to assist the radiology nurse, I approached my nurse to verify how long it had been since she had placed a PICC line. Much to her surprise, it truly had been way too long. Despite this fact, she still wanted to help with the line placements. In an attempt to protect my nurse from practicing outside of her scope and to protect myself from delegating tasks to an incompetent nurse, I refused to send the nurse. I did, however, offer to send her for training for future possibilities of assistance.

The definition of autonomy has been understood broadly from the literature review. However, it is hard for a nurse (or me) to capture the abstract word in clinical practice. What is the exact meaning of autonomy in nursing? Is it with different meanings between twenty years ago and now? How does it affect our clinical practice? I conduct the project in NUR 505 by using Rodger’s evolutionary view to clarify the concept of autonomy.

The primary barrier impeding effective interaction among the personnel is a communication barrier. Information exchanges between the patient’s primary care provider and other care providers are often where errors occur or where information is lost. Two-way communication between the surgeon’s office and the hospital is necessary for effective and efficient patient care. Consequently, there does not appear to be an effective channel of communication with the surgeon’s office to obtain appropriate documentation which would have included the patient’s custodial information. Secondly, the pre-op nurse was in an emotionally charged situation due to the stress of an increased workload and additional responsibilities. Although, the appropriate

Thank you for your post. I enjoyed reading about your experiences with your nurse leader. I have worked with two laissez-faire leaders. Marquis and Huston (2015) characterized this type of leaders as being permissive, providing little direction, dispersing decision-making throughout the group, and someone who does not criticize. The first manager I encountered with this style of leadership when I was a pediatric intensive care unit nurse. Many times the staff would get frustrated with her because it seemed like she did not give much direction. Later, I joined the pediatric transport team, and this same person was also the manager of the transport team. The staff of this department liked her style of leadership. This group was a highly

Communication is a vital process in nursing that involves the exchanging of information, thoughts, and opinions between patients and other health care providers. The physicians and the nurses, who were part of Elaine’s surgical team, lack the communication aspect and ended up, jeopardize Elaine’s life. Effective clinical practice involves patient’s critical information must be accurately communicated between staffs (Daniel & Rosenstein, 2008). Often when patient’s information is not communicated effectively, patient safety is at risk for misinterpretation of information, unclear orders, and overlooked changes in patient’s health status (Daniel & Rosenstein, 2008). Lack of communication creates situations where medicals errors occur causing

Today’s nurse leaders practice in very complex environments. Managers are asked to function in a way that presents their professional moral courage while providing an environment that is conducive to safe, quality patient care. The patient safety umbrella covers multiple portions of the health care industry. Because of the patient safety magnitude, health care systems are challenged to identify patient safety issues and solve them. As new problems arise they are often pushed under the patient safety umbrella. Nurse leaders are faced with determining how these patient safety additions affect them and their staff. Since patient safety and quality care are largely dependent upon the nursing staff, this paper will focus on the nurse leader’s responsibility to their staff and the legal implications when these responsibilities are not met. Aspects that determine whether or not a manager is successful in balancing their requirements include: staff hiring, training, evaluating, and disciplining; safe staffing levels; providing a safe workplace; successfully matching nursing skill with patient factors; and security of patient information. These areas are important in order for the leader and organization to remain in compliance with accrediting organizations as well as to defend against law suits which may ensue.

According to Hellriegel and Slocum (as cited in Blais & Hayes, 2011) empowerment is described as a form of responsibility handed down from a leader to a team / individual, which allows one to be a part of the decision-making process. For example, when the healthcare facility began to experience an increase in-house pressure ulcers, management empowered the nursing staff to create a proposal to address the issue. Personally, I suggested initiating a turn schedule for physically dependent patients. The schedule promotes appropriate turning and provides measurable accountability. In this case, empowerment of the nursing staff led to potentially improving a substantial issue.