Patient Management and Delegation

Patient Management and Delegation

Charge nurses combine their clinical experience with their managerial skills to effectively execute their duties. For their assigned shifts, the responsibility of charge nurses is to oversee a specific department within a given healthcare organization. As such, they oversee admissions and discharges, manage patient caseloads, and delegate nursing assignments. Simulation activities with clinical scenarios are vital as they help nurses to practice their clinical skills and sharpen their analytical skills continuously. Besides, simulation activities help nurses to improve their ability to pay attention to detail during patient observation and diagnosis.

Experience

As the charge nurse in the simulation, I happened to improve my patient diagnosis, critical thinking and clinical skills as a whole. From the simulated activities on delegation and caseload management, my ability to determine appropriate acuity levels and their respective rationales has improved significantly. Besides, during the simulated activities, I managed to identify with the stress level for which charge nurses should brace themselves. Moreover, I learned that the delegation of a patient assignment needs accurate analysis and critical thinking. In such a case, it is essential to determine the experience level of the assistive staff to whom the patient is assigned. It is very vital to consider the nurses’ experience and competency levels.

Similarly, it is also crucial to consider the patient acuity and potential admissions that should be assigned to that nurse in a later shift (Marquis & Huston, 2017). A failure to do this analysis may make an assignment extremely difficult for the nurse to manage. In most cases, this failure to properly analyze the process may lead to such adverse events such as medical errors, injuries and sepsis, which may increase the patient’s length of stay in the hospital. The current nurse staffing issues make the role of the charge nurse more critical. They need to be proficient and accountable for delegation-related issues arising in their nursing unit. As such, charge nurses must own all activities in the unit during their shift. Most importantly, this simulation activity made me underscore the need for an assignment to be made in a timelier manner and with great care.

When all these considerations have been made, the end result would be a safe hospital stay for the patient to have, after which he or she will get well and be discharged safely home.

Responsibilities of a Charge Nurse

Charge nurses have many responsibilities. In the absence of the nurse manager, the charge nurse is considered the leader of the pack. However, the responsibilities of the charge nurses in their units are distinct when there is a nurse manager. Charge nurses perform both managerial and administrative duties (Marquis & Huston, 2017). First, charge nurses guide other nurses on the way to administer care to new patients and respond to questions regarding the protocol. In that case, they work closely with patients and other nurses to create a standardized plan of care in accordance with the needs of the patient. They also oversee these patients’ transfers and discharges. Second, charge nurses are shift supervisors who assess the performance of nurses. Third, they identify issue and emergencies and respond calmly and efficiently without causing any alarm or panic in the facility. Lastly, charge nurses perform such administrative duties as creating nurse shifts schedules, facilitating nursing assignments and communicating any protocol changes to staff, in liaison with doctors and administrators.

Reflection on Correct and Incorrect Decisions and Responses

As a charge nurse in this simulation activity, I learned many correct and incorrect decisions and responses that I made. In real-life situations, chief nurses must keep incorrect decisions to a minimum to reduce the margin of medical error.

An incorrect decision that I made regards my opinion concerning the actual patient assignment. However, I learned that when determining the appropriate nurse assignment, critical thinking is a requirement. As such, I now know that when assigning patients to nurses, I must consider the nurse’s experience. Moreover, I also learned that the basis of patient assignment is on acuity as opposed to quantity.

My most correct decision as a charge nurse in the simulation activities was to examine the patient’s information that may not be primary to their initial diagnoses. As such, when assigning rooms and beds to these patients, it is important to consider such factors as mobility status and lab work. Therefore, digging deeper into the patient’s medical history was the correct decision I made during the simulation activity.

If I were to repeat the activity, I would change the incorrect decision I made regarding the patient assignment. I would be sensitive to the needs of the patient, the acuity level, and the experience level of the nurse to whom I will be assigning the patient. These considerations would ensure a good experience for both the patients and their families and the nurses themselves. As Allen (2018) states, “successful assignments require attention to the needs of both nurses and patients.”

Application to Nursing Practice

Many experiences can be applied to nursing practice. The first one is the delegation of patient assignment based on the patient’s acuity and the nurse’s experience level to ensure quality patient care. The second one is a more in-depth analysis of a patient’s medical history before deciding on the room and bed to which the patient will be assigned considering such factors as lab works and mobility of the patient. The last one is to consider the possibility of having admissions in the next shift so that I do not overwhelm the next shift with the assignment.

In conclusion, this simulation activity has been very crucial in unearthing my strong and weak areas in nursing practice. This activity has allowed me to practice my clinical and decision-making skills. I have also learned more responsibilities of charge nurses, especially the need to be careful during the nurse-patient assignment. Most importantly, I have learned many experiences that can be applied in the nursing practice to improve the quality of care and ensure patient safety and satisfaction.