Does anyone have difficulties delegating tasks?

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Hello, I am a student and going to graduate from nursing school pretty soon. As a student I have a hard time delegating tasks to assistive personnel; I found it to be much easier to do thing myself during clinical hours. Can anyone help/give suggestion to improve/develop my delegation skills? Pretty soon I am going to be working and will have full load of patients and won't be able to do everything.

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Specializes in LTC, Nursing Management, WCC.

Hello;

It was hard for me to delegate when I was a student nurse because you are there as a guest of the hospital...not really an employee, so a CNA should listen and help but really...

Delegation can be tricky. You need their help but you don't want to seem bossy or interrupt people who are busy. Remember the 5 rights to delegation. First you have to decide if you are able to delegate the task. Delegating tasks come from the intervention phase of nursing. Remember delgation is shifting the responsiblity to someone while retaining accountabilty. Since you are accountable for it...you technically are still responsible for the task to be completed. :) If I delegate to a CNA and it doesn't get done, I know this because I went back and checked. Then I can intervene. It doesn't mean I am going to do it, but I am going to ask the person why it wasn't done.

The five rights are: Right task, Right circumstance, Right person, Right direction or communication, Right supervision/evaluation (https://www.ncsbn.org/fiverights.pdf)

Delegation is an art form. Use lots of please and thank yous. Appreciate the help and show your appreciation. If I have time I will make it open ended... for example, Chris do you think you can get Mr Smith's BP and give it to me with in 15 minutes? I use that alot because I know that the CNAs are very busy and it allows me to assess how busy they are. If Chris truly doesn't have the time, I will ask someone else or maybe say, how about 30 minutes. What maybe better is to give a time... can you get me his vitals by 10 AM. That way the CNA can go about their things and manage their time.

Delegation will get easier for you with time. I did a lot of things on my own at first and slowly added things to the LPNs and CNAs. Remember to chip in and help. Don't make it look like it is something you would never do and expect someone to get it done for you. Good Luck!

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Thank you a lot. I will follow your advice, tomorrow I am going to be at the hospital for 12 hr shift. I am doing my preceptorship (hope i will handle it):up::up::up:

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:up::up::up:
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I am terrible at it as well...and I also graduate soon. I think part of my problem is that I have been a CNA/PCA for the past several years, and don't feel qualified just yet to be giving orders, even though I know it's within my scope as a student. The other reason why I find it so difficult is because a lot of the CNAs on the floor in clinical feel threatened and territorial when students are around, and do not like to be delegated to by a 'kid.'

My only advice (and I should take it myself!) is to phrase it in such a way that they understand why you are asking them and in a tone that is appreciative.

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I don't have any medical background, so it is double hard for me. Thanks for your advice :)

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Specializes in IMCU.
I am terrible at it as well...and I also graduate soon. I think part of my problem is that I have been a CNA/PCA for the past several years, and don't feel qualified just yet to be giving orders, even though I know it's within my scope as a student. The other reason why I find it so difficult is because a lot of the CNAs on the floor in clinical feel threatened and territorial when students are around, and do not like to be delegated to by a 'kid.'

My only advice (and I should take it myself!) is to phrase it in such a way that they understand why you are asking them and in a tone that is appreciative.

I try not to think of it as giving orders -- more like a collaboration. It helps if I get a few moments at the beginning of the shift to connect with the CNA. This can be hard when you are the student but it makes a huge difference to my relationship with them. I love the CNA's at my clinical site.

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You are right, collaboration is very important especially when there is more than one thing that needs to be done. Thanks for your reply :)

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Specializes in nsg homes & homecare.

You delegate tasks as a CNA also. Example, if your resident/patient asks you for a sandwich between meals you ask the kitchen to prepare it. If someone leaves and the room is empty, you let housekeeping know so it can be cleaned. It shouldn't be thought of as 'giving orders'...it's teamwork and they are part of that team.

However, aside from just being polite and using your 'please & thank you's' you need to consider their workload also. It's hard work to be a CNA, and if they have 10 people to get out of bed in 2 hours and the other one only has 4 left to do, they may get a little upset with you.

And, as a rule of thumb you should always keep in mind that you shouldn't ask others to do what you WON'T do yourself. If they see you helping them keep up with someone that has diarrhea all day, they'll be more likely to accept a delegated task without a problem. But if they see that you do your meds, assessments & charting and nothing more, even when you see they have their handsfull, they won't be too happy about you asking them to take VS. Just because your the nurse & they are the CNA doesn't mean your exempt from cleaning up their person whose had diarrhea all day. That misses the point of team work.

I've been the CNA that's worked with those nurses that won't lift a finger to help a CNA and pile more on top of the load, it sucks, and more than likely the other CNA's don't like them much either. Make sure you respect and appreciate them as much as you would expect them to do for you, and let them know it!

Keep all that in mind with what everyone else has said and you'll do fine.

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I greatly appreciate your feedback. It is good to know an opinion about delegation from CNA’s point of view. I want to say that expectations from student nurses are same as from RNs: we have full load of patients, have to chart, assess, and work on care and teaching plans. I agree with you, and you know I do everything possible to help aids in patient care; however, there are some (just few) c.n.a’s who don’t care and most of the times ignore students.

Thank you :)

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