It is not uncommon to be understaffed when working in the nursing field. Fortunately, the RN has the ability to delegate certain tasks to Unlicensed Assistive Personnel; such as a CNA or STNA. The role of the UAP is to assist the nursing staff and take care of the patients. Although an RN can delegate tasks to a UAP, assessments, evaluations, and nursing judgement must be left up to the licensed individual. The UAP can take vitals, give showers, and help with activities of daily living. An ICU environment differs from a general medical-surgical unit in that the ICU is for patients who have extreme sickness or injuries. A general medical-surgical unit on the other hand deals with basic nursing care. In an ICU the duties for a UAP would be more critical than in a general medical-surgical unit; vitals would be taken more often, patients would need more help with their daily activities including toileting, feeding, ambulating and …show more content…
Delegating tasks can be problematic for me. I’m a perfectionist and I like things being done a certain way. I like not having to worry about the quality of care, or the accuracy of the information being recorded. I have a tendency to under-delegate, allowing me to be more hands on and completing certain tasks myself.. Recently I delegated vitals on a hospice patient to a nursing assistant. Although I prefer doing vitals myself, I trust this CNA and didn’t mind delegating to her. She has been a nursing assistant longer than I have been alive and I’ve never had to second guess her work.. She completed the vitals successfully. There was no delegation error, but if there had been I would most likely do one-on-one training with this CNA to find the reasons for the error and also work on corrective solutions so the error doesn’t