Nurse Delegation Research Paper

3424 Words7 Pages

The Principles of Becoming an Expert Nurse in Delegation
Krista L. Woolsey
College of Southern Maryland
Nursing 2415 Trends and Management

The Principles of Becoming an Expert Nurse in Delegation
“A novice delegator will delegate no tasks due to lack of confidence or will delegate with minimal follow-up due to lack of knowledge. The expert nurse will appropriately delegate according to the team members’ abilities and will have appropriate follow-up especially when sensing a change in the patient’s status.”(Heuristic. (n.d), 2007, p 111) There is currently a rise in the role of unlicensed assistive personnel (UAP) and a decrease in the use of licensed practical nurses (LPN) in health care due to the ever changing restructuring of reimbursement …show more content…

Often times the lack of delegation is due to lack of education in nursing programs on how to effectively delegate. There is a lack of confidence in their decisions to delegate, or it may seem time consuming to determine the competence of their support staff. (Ruff, 2011) There is fear of mistakes, lack of trust, lack of communication, as well as lack of leadership nursing. “Delegation remains an underdeveloped skill among nurses, and one that is difficult to measure.” (Kaernestead & Bragadottir, 2012, p 10) Delegation skills of the newly graduated nurse have been assessed as one of the weakest skills in their job descriptions. Lack of experience, confidence as a leader, and lack of motivational skills has been proven to be an attribute when assessing the skill set. Baccalaureate degree nurses have shown to have a greater confidence and skill in delegation as compared to Associate degree nurses due to advanced education. (Kaernestead & Bragadottir, 2012) The lack of advanced education often leads to the RN performing tasks that could have been delegated which would then allow ample time for the nurse to …show more content…

They must again consider the competence and training of the staff, they are considering the delegation to, planning supervision and evaluation of the completed task. Next the RN must refer to the health care organizations job descriptions and policy on delegation. (Hansten & Jackson, 2009) ”A job description and policy would not override the legal limits of the scope of practice”. (Hansten & Jackson, 2009, p 290) Any task that involves the nursing process is not the right task to delegate. (Title 10, Subtitle 27, Chapter 11, File

Open Document