Why is delegation important in nursing

Practice nursing and community nursing are particularly vulnerable. All employers, including GPs, are accountable for the actions of their employees through vicarious liability. Therefore, the employer must ensure that all practitioners are trained and supervised until they can show competence, especially if that role is being extended as with support workers, and that employees work within their sphere of competence.

Practice nurses have a duty of care and legal liability for patients and as such, are accountable for the decision to delegate a task or duty. Although delegated to another practitioner, we remain responsible for the overall management of the patient through assessment, planning and evaluation of the standards of care they receive. To ensure the safety and certainty of the task delegated, the delegation must be appropriate. Therefore, it is imperative the delegatee has the competence to perform, they fully understand your instructions, they are adequately supervised and supported and the outcome of the delegated task will meet the required standard.

If these elements are in place, you are not accountable for the decisions and actions of the person to whom you have delegated. The delegatee becomes accountable because:.

They take social, ethical, legal and contractual accountability and are responsible for the tasks they accept. In delegating to another, nurses must make appropriate support and supervision readily available considering the recorded knowledge and competence of the worker, the needs of the patient, where the activity is taking place, such as in a surgery or care home, and the activity assigned, such as flu vaccination administration, wound dressing or smoking cessation clinics.

Others in the wider team must be informed of the delegation. The delegator should assess the whole process for risk and be able to evaluate the process so any difficulties are eliminated. The Royal College of Nursing RCN has an excellent publication and accompanying accountability and delegation video that has case scenarios and would be a valuable reminder and discussion topic for general practice teams. RCN guidance confirms that delegating care to another practitioner must always be in the best interest of the patient and not done to save time, money or create status.

The delegatee must be suitably trained for the task with records and dates kept, with recorded evidence of competence. The training should be set against recognised standards where possible — such as spirometry skills for primary care — and there should be ongoing development to maintain competence.

Understanding which tasks can be delegated to LPNs or nursing assistants can help reduce stress, improve efficiency, and allow nurses to focus on the most important duties. Because nurses are accountable for the safety and comfort of patients, delegating effectively is critical.

The patient experience should always come first, and nurses play a major role in ensuring that their patients get quality care. Nurses must also balance this with more administrative requirements, ever increasing staffing issues, and other competing priorities. In many cases, nurses are responsible for tasks that others could do just as, if not more, effectively. Handing off those tasks to other qualified professionals frees up valuable time for nurses to focus on the core work for which they are best suited.

Delegation also enables assistive caregivers to positively contribute to patient outcomes while lowering costs for employers.

For example, there are legal considerations to take into account. Start my Subscription. Log In. Sign Up. Online CPD Articles. Developing Delegation Skills. Document 4m of CPD. What Does it Mean to Delegate? For the delegating nurse, this means: You must establish that anyone you delegate to can carry out your instructions. You must confirm that the outcome of any delegated task meets the required standards.

You must make sure that everyone you are responsible for is supervised and supported. However, the nurse who delegates the task retains the responsibility to judge the appropriateness of the delegation by: Reassessing the condition of the patient at appropriate intervals and determining that it remains stable and predictable.

Observing the competence of the caregiver and determining that they remain competent to perform the delegated task safely and effectively. Evaluating whether or not to continue delegation of the task. Royal College of Nursing Essential Components of Delegation Matching the right person with the right expertise for the right job is a complex professional skill requiring sophisticated clinical judgment and the willingness to have final accountability for patient care Weydt How to Delegate Safely In theory, the delegation of roles and responsibilities should be a win-win situation, creating manageable workloads while also providing patients with the care they need.

The person delegated then becomes accountable because: They have the ability knowledge and skills to undertake the activity or intervention. They accept the responsibility for performing the activity. Although working as a team will help make the workplace very effective, this is not being done at this Royal Farms. Deana stated that the personality conflicts and personal bias causes the communication to come to a halt. Other success factors of blended learning include employees ' motivation, technological skills and time.

To motivate employees to participate in blended learning, employees need to know that the content delivered by blended learning is both relevant and useful to their jobs. Pull and push strategies can be used, too Moshinskie, Moshinskie describes push as requiring the completion of a course and monitoring progress. Pull strategies are an attempt to inspire the employees to utilize the training content and skills by providing interesting information prior to the training and keeping the training interactive and interesting.

While understanding communication between nurses is important, similarly, communication is also important to the nurse and other disciplines. One example of this was pertaining to a patient in the ICU room. Importance Of Delegation Words 4 Pages. Delegation is the transfer of authority from a superior to a sub-ordinate in order to make decisions and carry out tasks.

It can also be defined as the shift of decision making authority from a superior to a subordinate in order to get certain activities done. In Delegation, despite the transfer or shift in decision making authority, the delegate i. The delegate reports to the delegator at the end of the completion of task. Delegation is an aspect of administration which managers needs to practice as this will help to relieve work load and tasks will be completed easily. This management development could be either through training outside or within the organization or it can be through self development.

It creates the sense of belongingness and togetherness: Through delegation people feel a sense of belonging as authority has been assigned to them. They try to make sure that the tasks which have been assigned to them go well.