Delegation is an important function in any organization and in today’s environment we see it becoming increasingly important in the health care setting. For management to make the best use of their time and skills effective delegation of tasks to the staff assists in their growth and development, builds confidence and trust, and increases the amount of work completed. Effective delegating provides benefits to the organization when managers mobilize resources, share responsibilities, and focus on doing a few tasks well, rather than many things less effectively resulting in increased management and leadership potential. The need for accessible, affordable, quality health care and an ever-growing shortfall of practitioners and providers means that health care managers must use every health care worker and ensure appropriate delegation of authority and tasks. With the United States currently experiencing a critical shortage of Nurses, health care organizations and policy makers realize they must depend on their licensed Nurses to delegate nursing tasks to licensed and unlicensed health care workers (Nursing Shortage Fact Sheet, 2010). The majority of delegation issues in health care today revolve around nursing care with the Registered Nurse (RN) assuming responsibility and accountability for the proper delegation of tasks to deliver optimum patient care (American Nursing Association, 2001).
McConnell (1995) describes delegation and empowerment as being one in the same with empowerment occurring when the delegation of a task is done correctly. In delegation accountability is given to the person the task was delegated to. Delegation assigns the limits of authority at each level. From an organizational viewpoint management del...
... middle of paper ...
...ty delegated will close the gap between practice and procedure. Again proper delegation and empowerment are seen as one in the same and when used in this manner by the health care manager create more productive work environments but failure to effectively delegate leads inevitably to management failure (McConnell, 2006).
In conclusion upon review of all the references it seems clear to me that an organization must use all its resources, especially that of management and staff, to achieve its goals and become successful. By using proper delegation and empowerment of staff, management is able to become more productive focus on priority projects while training and developing their subordinates. The tools of delegation and empowerment have been and are still used in the health care setting all the while adapting to change, which is what our future holds a lot of.
The American Nurses association defines delegation as, ‘The transfer of responsibility for the performance of a task from one individual to another while retaining accountability for the outcome’ (Saccomano, 2010, p. 523). When delegating to staff or members of your team, it is important that it is used appropriately and within the proper guidelines. It is common to see RNs delegating in the hospital setting to the LVN or nursing assistant, however, the RN must know the limitations and what is within their scope of practice. Unfortunately, even if the nurse uses these guidelines, conflict can still occur with other staff making the process more difficult. Having the responsibility to delegate, especially as a new registered nurse, can be daunting,
Delegation as defined by the American Nurses Association (2005) is the ability to handover responsibility for the performance of a duty from one person to ano...
The need for delegation in the nursing field is attributed to the fact that these professionals cannot perform every task for every patient. However, the delegation process is guided by some principles that help nurses to enhance the efficiency of their practice and avoid any legal implications. These principles include the fact that the process must always be in the best interest of the patient, ensuring the support employee must be adequately trained to carry out the task, and document written evidence of competence assessment. These principles are critical to the success and effectiveness of the delegation process.
The delegator is accountable for the acts of delegation and incur liability if found negligent in the process of delegating and supervising; while the delegate is accountable for the completion of the delegated task. The delegator is accountable for the transfer of responsibility and authority to a competent delegate (Porter-O-Grady & Malloch, 2016). The distinct concepts of accountability and responsibility are the key elements in the effectiveness of the delegation process. The difference of “accountability and responsibility relates to their orientation” (Porter-O’Grady & Malloch, 2016, p. 53). Responsibility emphases on the work, the competence of the delegator and delegate, the efficiency of the processes, the quality of work, and the excellence of the application; while, accountability focuses on the issues of outcome and demands attention to the effects of the work (Porter-O’Grady & Malloch,
The National Council of State Boards in Nursing defines delegation as “transferring to a competent individual the authority to perform a selected nursing task in a selected situation” (National Council of State Boards of Nursing, Resources section, 4). When delegating, the registered nurse (RN) assigns nursing tasks to unlicensed assistive personnel (UAP) while still remaining accountable for the patient and the task that was assigned. Delegating is a management strategy that is used to provide more efficient care to patients. Authorizing other individuals to take on nursing responsibilities allows the nurse to complete other tasks that need tended to. However, delegation is done at the nurses’ discretion and is a personal choice. Nurses must make careful decisions regarding delegation, taking into account the skill and training of the UAP, the difficulty and risk of the task, and the patient’s condition. The expected outcomes, a time frame for completion, and any limitations should be explained to the UAP at the time that the task was delegated.
Describe an example of effective (or ineffective) nursing delegation. What delegation principles were (or were not) followed? What can be learned from this example?
This addresses the environment in which nurses practices and strives for “an innovative environment where strong professional practice flourishes and where the mission, vision, and values come to life to achieve the outcomes believed to be important for the organization” (ANCC, 2008). This type of environment is accomplished by nurses working together towards a strategic plan outlined with facility policies and knowledge-based nursing and skills to achieve desired outcomes and accomplish organizational goals. I believe my facility does a great job with structural empowerment. Our nurse manager makes sure we know what our goals are as a unit. We review hospital satisfaction scores and infection rates to determine what practices need to be addressed for achieving organization and desired outcomes. We work to provide cost-effective care that exceeds national standards for excellence while working to strengthen bonds between staff members and making sure that at our facility “caring comes first”
...ntinually evolve, a certain degree of freedom must be felt by its members, bureaucracy represents and organization from which chaos has completely been eliminated. Nurse Executives, therefore, will need to encourage staff to challenge existing practice. Given the current environment, creative conflict will need to be supported in order for our continued growth.” (McGuire, 1999, p. 9) I believe that Capital Health is on a path for success. They have modernized there organization chart causing a more decentralized environment. This new atmosphere fosters empowerment of its nursing staff. This sense of ownership over their practice provides growth not only for individual nurse, but the entire profession. This positive proactive change of the organizational structure will allow the hospital to experience continued growth and development that is propelled from within.
In the nursing profession, strategic thinking, effective decision making and delegation is important. With this, the goal of providing quality care is key and can be accomplished through a theory called servant leadership. In this style of leadership and management, the entire team has input into decision making based on the organization’s values and ideals. Servant leaders create devoted followers in response to the positive attention they give (Nursing Community Journal, 2015).
...mplications that allow for opportunities of change. One of the presumptions is for training and staffing (Shi & Singh, 2012). With the utilization of health care improvements, the staff will need additional instructions on the performance of equipment and how to efficiently achieve the desired results. Managers or supervisors recognize the need for supplemental staffing and training to optimize patient satisfaction and quality of care. The health care administrator must also focus on changes in insurance policies and rules governing the provision of medical assistance (Shi & Singh, 2012).
Delegation is the method of giving decision-making authority to lower-level employees. For the process to be successful, a worker must be able to obtain the resources and cooperation needed for successful completion of the delegated task. Empowerment of the workforce and task delegation is closely interrelated. Empowerment occurs when upper-level employees share power with lower-level employees. This involves providing the training, tools and management support that employees need to accomplish a task. Thus, the employee has both the authority and the means to accomplish the work. Even though authority can be delegated, responsibility cannot; the person who delegates a task is held responsible for its success in the end. Thus the assigned worker is liable for meeting the goals and objectives of the assignment (Camp 2006).
Empowerment is about decision-making and autonomy, personal and professionally. Nancy should have empowered her staff’s nurses with the opportunity to be involved in the organization decision-making process. When nurses can influence and control their nursing practice, their autonomy, confidence, and commitment to the organization increase (Manojlovich, 2007). Organizations that empowered nurses to act and guide their everyday challenges using their professional skills, knowledge, and own judgment, shows positives patient outcomes, and less nurse turnover, burnout, dissatisfaction, stress, and powerlessness among their staff (Rao,
Empowerment is another feature of post bureaucracy. It represents organizations awarding power and authority to those lower in the organizational hierarchy (Knights & Willmott, 2007). To some extent empowerment could be beneficial to a organization because empowerment would allow the workers to work...
Employee empowerment can be described as giving employees' accountability and ability to make choices about their work without managerial authorization. Good managers are expected to assist employees to improve job success by supporting, training, leading and giving advice. Employee empowerment can increase employees' motivation, job satisfaction, and loyalty to their companies. The power that managers comprise should now be shared with employees with confidence, assertion, inspiration, and support. Work decisions and the ability to control an individual’s amount of work are now being relied upon at lower-level management positions (Fragoso, 1999). Groups of empowered employees with little or no supervision are now being formed and these groups are being called self-managed teams. These groups can now solve work problems, make choices on schedules and operations, learn to do other employees’ jobs, and are held accountable for the quality of their finished products.
Empowerment can vary from person to person. A broad perspective of empowerment that the majority of people can relate too is based on setting goals and achieving them. A person needs to take control of their own goals they have set and do everything possible to achieve them. This also means that you need to be aware of your strengths and weaknesses so that your goals will be more attainable. While most of these goals can be personal, they can also be applied to a career setting.