Delegation In Professional Nursing

Delegation plays an integral role in the nursing profession. In fact, delegating tasks to other appropriate staff members (e. g. patient care techs, LPNS) can be the key component in making sound clinical judgements as a registered nurse; as it also determines the hierarchy of care.However, there are many misconceptions in the art of delegation: the right person, right circumstance, and right task. To what extent are tasks un-able to be delegated? For example, assessment, teaching and or nursing judgement. The goal is for the registered nurse to recognize when specific task are too be delegated. For instance, you just received report on all six of your patients. . . one patient just arrived to the floor from PACU from a liver resection, with a pain score of six out of ten. Five of your six patients are scheduled for medications, one fall risk patient is requesting to be assisted to the restroom and a family member is requesting for her husband's tracheostomy to be suctioned.

Who do you see first? What task would you consider a priority? Most importantly out all of these tasks, which one is the most appropriate to delegate to an LPN or nurses aid?Well, if you guessed taking a patient to the bathroom? You are right! Typically, a nurse performs complex assessments and works more closely with the entire team of physicians, lab, pharmacy, physical therapy, the chaplains, etc. , to create a complex care plan that is individualized to the needs of the patient. Essentially, registered nurses have a higher standard of legal responsibility. So, it’s important to consider that not delegating particular tasks can make or break your day and most importantly the clients, within the first 15 minutes of your shift to be honest. As a nursing professional, it's essential to have the ability to make decisions: the specific task to be performed, expected results and follow- up communication. Delegating tasks to other appropriate personnel; allows the nurse to be free to handle the more complex task and assessments.

However, it's important to note that "the person delegating ( i. e nurse) the task remains accountable for the appropriateness of that delegation and for the quality of the task performed" (Stonehouse. ,2015p. 152). A nurse must always be aware of who they delegate tasks to; if a task is designated to the wrong person, then the nurse is still accountable and may have to answer to their manager or to a higher authority (Stonehouse, 2015).In conclusion, research indicates there are some fascinating insights into the art of delegation. Theoretically, delegation is a major element of directing the everyday function of the nursing workflow. Appropriately delegating the right task, to the right person under the right circumstance is very beneficial and allows the nurse to do the jobs only they can do.