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Delegation is a skill that newly qualified nurses need to learn. Nursing student Jennifer Eaton declares her own confusion with the concept and describes the principles of doing it effectively
Summary
This article describes the skill of delegation and its importance in providing effective nursing care. It highlights the confusion over the concept, and outlines the views of the Nursing and Midwifery Council, which are included in its Code of Conduct.
Keywords
Management, training, accountability, delegation, responsibility
This article focuses on the management concept of delegation. During my training to become a nurse I have learned about accountability, responsibility and liability. However, I remain unclear about the basic principles of delegation and who is accountable for what. In a recent interview, RC N adviser Paul Vaughan suggests that I am not alone in this confusion (Waters 2008). Some of the uncertainty stems from the Nursing and Midwifery Council (NMC) guidance on accountability which was issued in 2007.
Articles published in Nursing Management and Nursing Standard both quoted the RC N saying the NMC's guidance was a 'recipe for confusion' (Harrison 2007a, Harrison 2007b). The guidance states that a qualified nurse is 'accountable for the appropriateness of that delegation' and would be 'held accountable for the actions of the person carrying out the delegated task'.
Wheeler (2007) defines delegation as when 'one person appoints another to act as a chosen representative on his or her behalf'.
Delegation takes place at an organisational and individual level, making delegation an essential task of management to achieve 'organisational effectiveness' (Wheeler 2007).
The delegating registered nurse is professionally accountable to the NMC and is obliged to follow the NMC Code of Conduct (2008a). The Code says that to delegate effectively the person being delegated to must have the ability to perform the required task, the result needs to meet the required standards, and that the person completing the...