Care Delivery in Nursing: Delegation

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Care Delivery: Delegation Introduction The topic I have chosen to discuss in this essay is delegation, as from my experience this is one of the most complex nursing skills to develop, this claim is supported by literature (Weydt: 2010) Delegation is a suitable topic to discuss as it is a necessity for any nurse to be able to delegate effectively, especially in recent times in which nurses are stretched to their limits due to an increase in patient numbers and current government NHS cuts. The NHS is supposed to be protected from the public sector cuts, but new research shows that more than 50,000 jobs are disappearing from the NHS (Ramesh: 2011) Delegation has particular relevance to me as a third year student because knowing when, how and to whom you can delegate requires a complex understanding of the task in hand, the process of delegation, and the skills and existing workloads of the people available. It is especially important to achieve the right balance as a third year student, as delegating too much may result in a loss of control, while failing to delegate or not delegating enough can lead to duties not being completed. I will begin by discussing areas of delegation such as responsibility, accountability and authority. I will then move on to discuss aspects and principles of best practice. I will then continue to focus on managerial and organisational aspects relating to delegation, I will discuss these aspects using examples from practice. Delegation may be difficult but it offers many potential benefits to both individuals and the organisation, ‘resulting in the optimum use of human resources and improved performance’ (Wheeler: 2001) According to Batman and Snell (2004), delegation is the assignment of authority and responsibility to a subordinate at a lower level requiring that the subordinate reports back to their manager the results, positive
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