Delegation in Nursing - Essay Example

"Delegation in Nursing" is a great example of a paper on care.
I observed a delegation scenario that stands out in the medical fraternity. It involved a nurse in charge of a medical-surgery rehabilitation unit within the hospital. She needed to attend an urgent educational conference organized by the district for two days. Consequently, she had to delegate specific roles to her subordinates. The subordinate who was in-charge of performing her roles was the night shift supervisor. She had been off for a whole week. Consequently, she was physically and mentally prepared to perform her delegated roles. The delegated roles included obtaining shift reports both during the day and night from the personnel in-charge, conducting rounds to each unit with the intention of identifying issues and problems, and preparing staffing roles. Other delegated roles included checking census and admissions within the unit. It was also necessary for the personnel to conduct a check on the unit to establish the number of patients who had been discharged.  I also noticed that the personnel scheduled appointments in order to ensure that activities ran smoothly within the unit. It is interesting to note that when the nurse in charge left, she had forgotten to allocate roles within the unit. Consequently, the personnel had to assemble all the personnel and allocate roles based on the usual activities conducted in the area. Delegation is an effective way of ensuring that organizations run smoothly. It also allows the involved personnel to trust his subordinates and empower them to grow professionally.

It is important to examine the delegation scenario based on the “five rights of delegation” (National Council of State Board of Nursing, 1997). Firstly, the rights of delegation acknowledge the need to have the right task. Consequently, an administrator needs to follow the organizational guidelines, standards, and procedures. In this case, the nurse in charge of the unit followed the organizational policy that requires her to delegate to competent personnel or subordinate under her control. In addition, she identified appropriate activities that needed to be delegated.

The second facet of the delegation process is identifying the right circumstances.  In this case, the nurse-in charge prior to her departure informed other personnel about the reporting structure. She also ensured that the personnel in-charge could access the necessary resources. In an effort to ensure that events would still be monitored in her absence, she instructed the personnel in-charge to keep hourly reports, especially on patient management.

The third facet of the delegation process is the right person. In this case, the right person was chosen based on individual performance and organizational policy. The fourth facet is the right direction or communication.  In this case, the communication process was situation-specific meaning that specific data needed to be collected. The data focused on the utilization of medical resources by the personnel within the unit. The data also focused on activities targeting specific clients.  The last facet is proper supervision. It was achievable through proper documentation that was to be reviewed later. It was also achieved through the evaluation of the entire delegation process, especially the efficiency of allocation of roles, utilization of resources, the efficiency of appointments, and admissions.