Question

identify three (3) most common reasons why staff nurses hesitate to delegate. Determine strategies to empower staff nurses to delegate appropriately.

Answer 1

1) Loss of Control

It is often feared that delegating a task means you lose control as someone else is doing the task for which you are responsible. It is very likely that as a staff nurse you think that only you can do this task better.

Solution: As nurse you should focus on the bigger picture and not bogged down by daily tasks. You should communicate more with the person performing the task so that you are aware of the progress. Provide timely feedback for what went well and what didn’t work and where improvements can be done. You not working on the task doesn’t mean you are not accountable for it as well. Being staff nurse, you only are accountable for all your tasks weather you do it or your team does it.Remember, each person has different style of work that may not always match with your style of work. Be open to an individual style and focus on outcomes.

2) Not Enough Time to Mentor

One of the biggest factors in not delegating task is people believe that they don’t have that much time to explain everything to someone else. They consider it waste of time as it requires more efforts and instead of answering other person’s questions it’s better that they themselves finish the task.

Solution: A change in perspective is required here. As a nurse,you should think for longterm benefits. You doing the task yourself can give you short term-benefit that you’ll quickly be able to get the task done. But, in long run this will become an overhead for you as you have to manage/lead and work on individual tasks as well. You investing some time to explain and make your team members learn will help you save a lot of time next time onwards. This is the time which you can utilize to focus better on your leader responsibilities or tasks that cannot be delegated.

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3) Not Enough Team Capability

Some staff nurses resist delegation saying that their team is not capable or they have lack of confidence in team for the skill-set required for tasks to be delegated.

Solution: Take some time to understand the strengths and skills of each of your team member and then delegate work accordingly to ensure best outcome.