Promoting Caring Partnerships: Delegation to Direct Care Staff

Price (includes one year of access and CE):  US$16 Course Code: 7SENNF-PRV-09-ddn25 CE: 3.00 Hours. Post Test Score Required for Successful Completion: 80%

Course Overview:

Nurses who work in developmental disabilities delegate much direct care to unlicensed caregivers. This module presents a caring approach to delegation in which the nurse uses appropriate delegation to ensure that clients' basic needs are met through administration of human care essentials by licensed and unlicensed caregivers. The module builds a foundation for the steps that lead to appropriate delegation by examining practical clinical applications of the concepts of authority, responsibility, accountability, and competence. It emphasizes how the nurse must ensure that each task is delegated under the right circumstances and to the right person, and that the nurse uses correct direction, communication, and supervision. Using situations that commonly occur in the care of clients with developmental disabilities, the module describes how to overcome barriers to delegation by nurses and how to integrate caring concepts into supporting caregivers as they carry out legal, safe, and appropriate delegation.

Course Objectives:

After completion of this learning activity, the learner will be able to:

• describe the relationship among the client, the nurse, and the UAP.
• explain the following terms as they apply to the process of delegation: accountability, authority, delegation, delegator, delegatee, supervision, UAP.
• explain the difference between "assignment" and "delegation" as the terms are used in community-based programs and health care settings.
• explain statutory and regulatory authority for delegation by nurses to UAPs.
• examine nursing liability related to delegation.
• identify the 5 Rights of Delegation.
• describe the information necessary and the decision-making processes used to make decisions about delegation.
• apply basic premises and principles to make reasonable decisions about delegation.
• give examples of ways nursing delegation makes use of clinical caritas processes as explained by Watson.

This courseware was made possible in part by grant number R43 NR04738-03 from the National Institute of Nursing Research (NINR). Its contents are solely the responsibility of the authors.

Copyright© 2007 by HealthSoft, Inc. All Rights Reserved.

HealthSoft, Inc. is an approved provider of continuing nursing education by the New York State Nurses Association, an accredited approver by the American Nurses Credentialing Center's Commission on Accreditation.

It has been assigned code 7SENNF-PRV-09.

This course is updated annually. Expiration date: 5/1/11

The faculty and planners of this course have no vested interests to disclose.

This course has received no commercial support.