Understanding Proper Delegation in Nursing

As we touched on delegation in our prior article on prioritizing care we felt that this topic was more involved and warranted its own article for better understanding.

What exactly is delegation? Delegation is the act of asking another employee to complete a task. Delegation can be ordered from the top of the chain to the bottom or vice versa, depending on the roles in the workplace.

In the nursing field delegation is the process of transferring a selected task to another individual who is competent to perform the selected task. For example a LPN (licensed practical nurse) may delegate the personal hygiene care to a CNA, STNA, or NA (certified nurse's aide, state tested nurse's aide, or nurse's aide).

It is very important for the person who is delegating tasks to know the legal responsibilities when handing out the variety of tasks to various health care workers. The person delegating must take into thought the individuals job descriptions, the individual's scope of practice, their knowledge base, and their demonstrated skilled, and their ability to understand the task set forth.

One important aspect of delegation is having the authority to perform the task; accountability and responsibility are two tasks that cannot be delegated to another individual. Legally one must understand that an individual is accountable for all their own actions. When delegating the delegating person must always remember it is important to always know that the task is the only thing being delegated, not the accountability. Even though the nurse who delegated the task the nurse who delegated it still accountable for the overall care of the client.

There are many principles and guidelines one must follow before delegating, one must evaluate the outcome of care that will be delegated and provide feedback to the delegate regarding their performance.

Tasks may be delegated after properly reviewing: Your patient's diagnosis, legal aspects of delegation, amount of experience and the judgment needed to perform the task selected, predictability of the outcome of the task, and if the person who is being delegated to is capable of performing the task.

It would be inappropriate to delegate to someone if it leads to unsafe patient situations, or if the talk being delegated is not in the scope of the persona practice.

Parameters of delegation can sometimes be a tricky thing to understand we have tried to make them as simple to understand as possible so that your delegation can be done properly and effectively.

Right task: is the task you are delegating legally able to be delegated to the person you are delegating too?

Right circumstances: does the person you are delegating too understand the elements of the procedure, and are you assured that the person can perform the procedure safely and effectively?

Right person: did you choose the right person to delegate the right task to?

Right Communication: have you described the task to be done including directions, special steps, and expected outcomes?

Right supervisor: Did you answer the questions of the person you delegated to, and are you available to solve a problem if one comes up?

It is ultimately the person job to understand the legal aspects, legal scopes of practices before they delegate to another person as it's not only the safety of the client involved it is also the licenses of each person who is involved. The person delegating will always maintain the accountability of the task they are delegating.