Delegation is believably one of the most complex skills that a nurse should possess. Notwithstanding its intricacies, delegation is pretty essential in daily nursing practice and provision of care, especially in a time when there is an increased demand for healthcare services (Anita, 2012).
This accentuates the need by nurses to perfect this art in order to optimally benefit from it. In this regard, delegation should be approached with utmost caution and sophistication, in a bid to stay true to the various legal and ethical principles that guide delegation, and at the same time, guard some pitfalls that compromise accountability and hence quality of care (Anita , 2012).
There are various critical aspects to consider before delegating roles. These include; the delegate’s skills, competence as well as personal virtues such as accountability and responsibility. In the event that these factors are not considered, failure is deemed to arise.
For instance, in one scenario, HT an RN was assigned to attend to 7 patients during a night shift. Four among the patients were acutely ill and MT an intern had to float from other units to assist HT. At the time when MT arrived into the room, an 84 year old male showed signs of epileptic seizure and right away, HT delegated the role of administering diazepam (IM). After the intramuscular injection, the 84 year old developed paralysis and possibly, MT had committed a sciatic nerve injury on the patient during the process.
Believably, delegation should be founded on sound judgement skills whereby an RN has a good understanding of the delegate’s skills, competencies and personality (Motacki & Burke, 2013). Nonetheless, in this case, HT did not take time to understand that MT was just an intern and he might have possibly not honed his clinical skills. As such, the primary source of error in this scenario was the RN’s failure to use clinical judgment to assess MT’s skills and perhaps, delegate lighter roles.
References
Anita Finkelman MSN, R. N. (2012). Leadership and Management for Nurses: Core Competencies for Quality Care. Pearson Higher Ed.
Motacki, K., & Burke, K. (2013). Nursing delegation and management of patient care. Elsevier Health Sciences.
