Prioritization/delegation dilemma..help please!!

Daytonite, BSN, RN · Feb 9, 2007

i'm having a little trouble understanding exactly what kind of prioritizing and delegation questions you might be looking for. this is a link to some questions regarding the issues of prioritizing and delegating tasks to subordinate workers:

http://nclextestprep.com/delegation.html - points to ponder when considering delegation and nursing management of personnel. from the anderson nclex-rn review. this is more about delegation and prioritization of nursing task involving patients.

however, when it comes to figuring out how to answer the application type questions on nclex which are based on prioritizing, it has to do with knowing and understanding the steps of the nursing process. you have to know them:

assessment
nursing diagnosis
planning
implementation
evaluation

determine where the situation you have been given lies within the steps of the nursing process. sometimes a question is as easy as having to assess the patient first before answering anything further on a question. other times, the question already has you in the implementation (nursing intervention) area and wants to know what is your top priority of intervention to get done at that point. with those questions, you really need to know the signs and symptoms of the condition being asked about and the order in which the symptoms get worse and worse. that is something you can only learn from studying the problems and complications a patient can develop.

do you have a good nclex study reference. saunders comprehensive review for the nclex-rn examination, 3rd edition, by linda anne silvestri comes with a cd that has over 4000 nclex type questions on it. you can specify the types of questions you want it to pull up and present to you. in the book she explains strategies on how to answer the various types of questions you might be presented with.

Beech1184 · Feb 9, 2007

Make yourself a grid sheet, along the left margin put all the tasks in order of priortiy, along the top, put a skills required score 1 being low and 5 being high. This will help you determine what to do yourself or delegate to others.

You can also do a time grid so that you manage yours and others. If a series of tasks you take on requires more time than you have it means you must delegate it to someone else. Hope this helps.

ShockerGirl07 · Feb 9, 2007

I dont know if this will help much but its what we use. Go to the link, then you can click on the chapters at the top (it will tell you what it cover in the upper left hand corner) then click on NCLEX review questions. Hope this helps!

NurseguyFL · Feb 10, 2007

Daytonite hit the nail on the head. How you answer these types of questions depends on two things: understanding what's going on with the patient, and knowing which part of the nursing process applies. For example, you have to understand exactly what type of question you are answering. If it is an Assessment question, you never want to delegate the task because assessing is something the nurse is always required to do.

You also have to understand that the NCLEX questions are testing your understanding of the flow of the nursing process. The process always follow the same order, so before you form a diagnosis or plan or implement anything you always have to assess first. Likewise, if you determine that the question is a planning question, you should choose the answer that relates most to planning, no matter how attractive the implementation option might look (because you always have to plan before you implement).

I also used to be terrible at this when I was in nursing school, until I bought an NCLEX prep book and read about how to answer nursing questions. Once you understand exactly what type of question you are answering (assessment, diagnosis, planning, implementation, or evaluation) you will begin to breeze through this.

rissa47 · Feb 10, 2007

wow guys...thanks for all the help...i am really so thankfull knowing that there are people willing to help...i appreciate your kindness and effort...keep up the good work!!