So wanted to brainstorm through a situation that came up recently. At my facility, I am normally a nurse manager for a rehab unit. Because of the COVID pandemic and fewer patients, I have been moved to assist on the LTC unit.
The other day, when I went down there, one of the nurses listed off various things they were needing help with down on the unit: med pass, feeding people, vital signs, obtaining daily weights, etc. I explained to her that I could help out with some things, but that I would still be attending to other duties, such as attending morning meetings and completing telehealth provider visits. She seemed to understand at that time.
However, about a day later, a patient had requested an enema in the afternoon. I passed this along to the nurse, who stated she would get to it if she had time. About 5 minutes towards shift change, she mentioned to me that she had never gotten to it, and that the oncoming replacement was a TMA, who isn't supposed to be giving enemas. In other words, I believe she was implying that I should be the one to do it.
I gave her a couple of options: I could help finish up with some of her charting so she would have time, or she could pass it along to the evening supervisor. I explained that I already had admission orders to review from the other unit. I believe she ended up passing along the task to the evening supervisor. From my knowledge, the enema was never given because the patient ended up having a couple of large bowel movements.
What I am wondering is who had authority in this situation. The nurse seemed like she wanted to delegate certain tasks to me, but, as a manager, I would think it would be me that determines who completes which tasks, not her. I guess I'm not sure what should have been done since we each had different opinions on who should do what. The patient ended up being fine, but just wondering about future situations like this.
Who does the delegation? The manager or the nurse?
