NSB305-Delegation Of Duties In Nursing

Introduction

Delegation can be defined as the act of issuing authority to another person to accomplish certain tasks. The person who provided the authority or delegated the task still remains accountable for the results (Copeman, 2014). There are 5 rights that govern delegation in nursing practice and they include the right task, the right circumstance, the right person, the right communication and finally the right supervision. The delegation process involves defining the task to be delegated, decide on the delegate, determine the task, reach an agreement, monitor the performance and finally provide the feedback.

Choice Of The Issue And Justification

For my assignment, I have chosen delegation of duties. This is because delegation of duties is one of the issues that is experienced or exercised in the nursing practice on several incidences. The nursing profession requires a nurse to be on duty each and every time because the disease process is usually unpredictable. Besides, the nursing process involves emergencies like accidents (Démeh & Rosengren, 2015). Nurses are also expected to be in constant supervision of patients throughout. Due to this commitment nature of the job, it is necessary at one given time to delegate duties because the nurse in charge might be having some other urgent or pressing issues to handle such as sickness or family issues. Delegation of duties has both advantages and disadvantages within the nursing practice (Fischer, 2016). The advantages includes improving time management, building trust within the organization and it enables on to take advantage of the specialized skills for once (Harris, 2017). The disadvantages of delegation on the other hand include possible miscommunication conflicts, lack of desired commitments and the risk for inferior results. Even though delegation is necessary, the due steps to delegation should be adhered to for better outcome or results.

Explanation Of Impact If The Issue Is Unresloved

If delegation of duties is left unresolved at the hospital, there will be conflict at the workplace and impact on positive nursing teamwork. This is because delegation causes miscommunication conflicts and leads to lack of commitment (Lee & Kim, 2017). Delegation also leads to the risk of inferior or poor results. Since delegation of duties in the nursing department is all about the senior and experienced nurses leaving out certain duties for the junior nurses to accomplish, there could be a possibility of miscommunication on the overall expectation of the job and this leads to conflicts between the seniors and the junior staffs. The juniors who are assigned the duty would fear to seek clarification for potential sacking since they will appear incompetent enough (Lin, MacLennan, Hunt, & Cox, 2015). The senior nurses on the other hand would assume the complexity or the difficulty of the task and assume how simple it is to the juniors as it is to them and they would feel there is no need for thorough explanation of the task. This contrasting ideas on how the task would be achieved is the one that leads to conflict.

Delegation of duties will also impact the nursing teamwork at the hospital due to the lack of commitment. During delegation of tasks, studies have shown that the subordinate staff who has been delegated the task might not have the passion as the senior nursing staff themselves (Tyczkowski et al., 2015). This is due to the fact that it might never be their original idea from the onset. A good example is when you work hard for several months providing patient education and elicit positive reactions from the patients, then you will value the whole process than the person who never witnessed the original efforts(Wong, 2015). Lack of commitment from a section of the nurses eventual impact the positive nursing teamwork since some will feel they are being let down by their compatriots. 

Discussion Of Realistic Strategies

Conflicts are common within organization due to the high number of employees. Conflicts mostly arise due difference in interests .However, there are different strategies that a beginning nurse can utilize to address different conflicts and ensure team cohesion.

Communication is the best tool in solving conflict. Communication is the exchange of information between two or more parties .It is one of the qualities of a good nurse leader. As discussed earlier, lack of communication during delegation leads to miscommunication conflict. To solve this conflict therefore, the nurse leader should communicate to all the employees and educate them on importance of communication. Any nurse should be encouraged to share their opinions with others .If a junior staff who has been delegated the task informs the senior of the task he cannot comprehend or accomplish well, the senior will then take time explaining and this would solve the miscommunication conflict at the hospital.

Right timing is another strategy that a beginning nurse can use to solve conflicts. Timing is very key in solving conflicts. The nurse leader should wait when there is hard evidence of a conflict for example if there is clear laxity from one employee. The nurse leader should then act immediately because if everyone around knows that the conflict is existing and the nurse leader is delaying with it, he or she would lose respect of those they lead.

The final strategy is knowing the boundary of each employee .In any organization, different individuals deal with conflicts in a different manner. The nurse leader should therefore know the risks associated with conflict resolution within the boundaries of each employee. After understanding the boundary of each employee, the nurse leader can then help other employees when they tend to cross the boundary and warn them in advance. Through this strategy, there would be no conflicts at all.

Conclusion

Delegation of duties is the act of providing authority to another person to carry out a certain task. This act is very common among the nursing profession due to the nature of commitment the practice is associated with. This act has both advantages and disadvantages. One of the advantages is that it ensures trust within the organization. The disadvantage of delegation on the other hand includes leading to conflicts and impacting the positive teamwork of nursing. To solve the different conflicts, the nurse leader should use different strategies such as effective communication, knowing the boundaries of employees and finally effective timing. 

References

Copeman, J. (2014). Leadership & Management in Healthcare Gopee Neil Galloway Jo Leadership & Management in Healthcareand £23.99 312pp Sage Second edition 9781446248829 1446248828. Nursing Management, 21(3), 14-14. doi:10.7748/nm.21.3.14.s13

Démeh, W., & Rosengren, K. (2015). The visualisation of clinical leadership in the content of nursing education—A qualitative study of nursing students’ experiences. Nurse Education Today, 35(7), 888-893. doi:10.1016/j.nedt.2015.02.020

Fischer, S. A. (2016). Transformational leadership in nursing: a concept analysis. Journal of Advanced Nursing, 72(11), 2644-2653. doi:10.1111/jan.13049

Harris, M. (2017). Delegation by Registered Nurses. Home Healthcare Now, 35(9), 523-524. doi:10.1097/nhh.0000000000000600

Lee, J., & Kim, J. (2017). Method of App Selection for Healthcare Providers Based on Consumer Needs. CIN: Computers, Informatics, Nursing, 1. doi:10.1097/cin.0000000000000399

Lin, P., MacLennan, S., Hunt, N., & Cox, T. (2015). The influences of nursing transformational leadership style on the quality of nurses’ working lives in Taiwan: a cross-sectional quantitative study. BMC Nursing, 14(1). doi:10.1186/s12912-015-0082-x

Tyczkowski, B., Vandenhouten, C., Reilly, J., Bansal, G., Kubsch, S. M., & Jakkola, R. (2015). Emotional Intelligence (EI) and Nursing Leadership Styles Among Nurse Managers. Nursing Administration Quarterly, 39(2), 172-180. doi:10.1097/naq.0000000000000094

Wong, C. A. (2015). Connecting nursing leadership and patient outcomes: state of the science. Journal of Nursing Management, 23(3), 275-278. doi:10.1111/jonm.12307