Concept: Delegation
Case Study
You are working the night shift on a medical unit and have been assigned charge nurse responsibilities. You are working with four RNs, one LPN, and two UAPs. A client becomes pulseless and is not breathing, and the nurse assigned to the client’s care calls a code. The nurse is occupied at this client’s bedside for 1.5 hours until the resuscitation effort is completed, and the client is transferred to the intensive care unit. This nurse also has four other assigned clients. In addition to the nurse assigned to care for the client requiring resuscitation, two of the other nurses working on your unit are assisting in the code.
Review the case study and write an essay (suggested length of 2–3 pages, excluding title page and reference page) in which you do the following:
1. Discuss what tasks could you delegate to the UAPs?
2. The LPN working on the unit is a new graduate and has been employed for only 4 weeks. How would you collaborate with this nurse when delegating tasks for completion?
3. Discuss how you will maintain the safety of the other clients on your unit while three nurses are occupied with the client requiring resuscitation?
Explain how might effective delegation to other team members contribute to care of the clients on the unit? (Remember, this is not a question about the patient that is coded, but how you will handle the unit while you are short staffed).
