Nursing Delegation
Nursing Delegation
Nurses fill many roles across the healthcare spectrum. They are the hub of communication between patients, physicians, families, laboratories, insurance companies, dieticians, and all other providers involved in a patient’s care. Nurses affect patient outcomes because they are a crucial piece in ensuring that care moves forward between disciplines. Because of this large, multi-tasking role, it is important that nurses learn to appropriately delegate. However, the ANA reports that, “….nurses find it difficult to delegate tasks to other members of their health care team,” (Sherman, R. and Eggenberger, T., 2009). In this case study, we see that Ms. W is a classic example of an advanced practice nurse taking on the sole responsibility for patient outcomes and not utilizing delegation to assist in Ms. R’s care. I, as a new nursing supervisor, am responsible for promoting effective inter-disciplinary care to patients in the clinic. Clearly, Ms. W needs my positive guidance and education on what staffing resources there are available to help with Ms. R’s care.
The first thing I would do to discuss delegation and teamwork with Ms. W would be to acknowledge her hard work up to this point. I would verbalize specific examples of how she has demonstrated her competency and care of Ms. R. For example, Ms. W instructed Ms. R to call if she had problems with her antibiotic, provided written instructions and her own phone number to Ms. R., and made attempts to put Ms. R in touch with community resources. After acknowledging Ms. W’s contributions, I would confirm her worries and frustrations with Ms. R and lead into a discussion about the disciplines available to her. Ms. W has a professional responsibility to delegate to these disciplines when appropriate. Once delegated, Ms. W will need to follow-up on each discipline’s recommendation and oversee the LVN’s tasks. Ms. W will be responsible for correcting and redirecting whenever a clinical
Nurses fill many roles across the healthcare spectrum. They are the hub of communication between patients, physicians, families, laboratories, insurance companies, dieticians, and all other providers involved in a patient’s care. Nurses affect patient outcomes because they are a crucial piece in ensuring that care moves forward between disciplines. Because of this large, multi-tasking role, it is important that nurses learn to appropriately delegate. However, the ANA reports that, “….nurses find it difficult to delegate tasks to other members of their health care team,” (Sherman, R. and Eggenberger, T., 2009). In this case study, we see that Ms. W is a classic example of an advanced practice nurse taking on the sole responsibility for patient outcomes and not utilizing delegation to assist in Ms. R’s care. I, as a new nursing supervisor, am responsible for promoting effective inter-disciplinary care to patients in the clinic. Clearly, Ms. W needs my positive guidance and education on what staffing resources there are available to help with Ms. R’s care.
The first thing I would do to discuss delegation and teamwork with Ms. W would be to acknowledge her hard work up to this point. I would verbalize specific examples of how she has demonstrated her competency and care of Ms. R. For example, Ms. W instructed Ms. R to call if she had problems with her antibiotic, provided written instructions and her own phone number to Ms. R., and made attempts to put Ms. R in touch with community resources. After acknowledging Ms. W’s contributions, I would confirm her worries and frustrations with Ms. R and lead into a discussion about the disciplines available to her. Ms. W has a professional responsibility to delegate to these disciplines when appropriate. Once delegated, Ms. W will need to follow-up on each discipline’s recommendation and oversee the LVN’s tasks. Ms. W will be responsible for correcting and redirecting whenever a clinical
References: Sherman, R. and Eggenberger, T. (2009). Taking charge: What every charge nurse needs to know. Retrieved from http://navigatenursing.org/PDFs/Fact Sheet Delegating.pdf