Delegation in Nursing - Term Paper Example

Nursing like any other profession must delegate as per the guidelines, policies, and procedures of the nursing profession. This includes the nurses’ job description, which dictates what to delegate or not. According to Cohen, as quoted in an educational journal of North Carolina, guidelines for professional delegation of care call for particular requirements otherwise called rights. These rights include the right task for an individual to perform, the right person to perform the care for the patient, the right information to describe desired patients outcome, and the right supervision to ensure that the task is carried out safely are the guidelines for every nurse (Rhom, n.d). A nurse must ensure that every UAP they delegate to is able to carry out instructions, that the outcome of the tasks delegated will meet the required standards, and that proper supervision and support is offered in performance of the tasks.

Delegation does not take responsibility away from the delegating nurse. Nurses remain responsible for any delegated tasks big or small, clinical or non-clinical. This means that proper supervision of delegated tasks is crucial to enable juniors meet professional standards. Lack of supervision or poor delegation of task is quite significant. It can lead to loss of a job of the delegating nurse, liability claims, or licence revocation. According to Cox as quoted in the journal of Royal College of Nursing, “the law imposes a duty of care on nurses, doctors, and UAP’s where it is “reasonably foreseeable” that they might cause harm to patients through their actions or their failure to act” (2011).

Nurses and their juniors must perform their tasks competently since they owe a duty of care to the patients and a legal liability. Some problems may arise where some Nurses fear to delegate due to lack of trust to their juniors, they believe that they can do it better. Insecurity, time involved in explaining the task and subordinate resistance to delegation are some of the challenges facing delegation in nursing. Proper training on delegation and proper job descriptions will ease the delegation process.

The ANA Standards of care and the State Nurse Practise Act provides general guidelines to what to delegate or not. A registered Nurse must evaluate capabilities of an UAP as they review individualized plan of care for patients. Some of the tasks for delegation are direct patient care activities such as taking a record of pressure, respirations, pulse rates, and temperature. Indirect care activities such as cleaning of equipments, errands such as delivering a tray with some items, clerical tasks, and stock of patient maintenance can be delegated.

Initial evaluation of the patient, evaluation of a patients’ progress, performing a Nurses’ diagnoses, discussing patients issue with the physician, and updating patients’ plan of care are tasks that should never be delegated. Before delegating, it is necessary that a registered nurse evaluate if the task to be delegated is in the best interest of the patient, that the task worker understands the task, that he has the skills and competence to perform the task. The role must be within the workers job description and that he accepts the responsibility.

Teamwork involves formation of groups by management to solve specific tasks after which such teams are dissolved. All registered nurses have