i am curious to know how other nurses out there handle delegating tasks to pca's. i'm always very polite in asking (not commanding). i would say, "ms pca, would you please put some scd's on pt in room 123?" i do try to do tasks like these when i can. but if i have to 2 things that both need to be done, one of which can only be done by a nurse, then i will delegate the other task to a pca. i do help patients up to the bsc or bathroom, help with repositioning in bed, get them ice, water, snacks, etc.
my shift starts @ 1900. there's a pca a few days ago whom i asked to put scd's on a pt. she looks at me and says nothing (she has this habit of not responding when asked to do tasks by nurses). almost 2 hrs later, around 2245 nothing has been done regarding the scd's. at this point i had already gotten 1 admission, had a transfer that had arrived right before shift change, and i had been informed that i was getting another admission, though the charge would help me with doing the actual admission paperwork. so, later i find the cna sitting @ the nurses' station as i'm running around trying to take care of my 5 patients. i remind the cna, as she looks like she is getting ready to leave. at this point, i'm on my way to do my admission paperwork on the first admission. she walks away, then turns around, throws her hands in the air and says loudly, "you don't know how to do it?" then walks away. later, after she has left, i find that she has put foot pumps on the patient. the week before there had been a big issue with a pt that had scd's on, that had not been ordered, and due to the pt's illness, scd's were actually a contra-indication. so i wondered whether she was trying to set me up, or had this been an honest mistake?
what kind of tasks do you delegate? how would you have handled the above situation? i would like to point out that the pca in question is quite a bit older than i am, has been at the job for several years, and the day before was making a big scene @ the nurses' station about how nurses have yelled at her and how people like running to the manager to complain about her.