Scenario: The Registered Nurse arrives to begin the shift on a busy medical-surg

Question

Scenario: The Registered Nurse arrives to begin the shift on a busy medical-surgical floor and discovers the other RN scheduled to work has called in sick. The patient census is 30. Two unlicensed assistive personnel (UAP) have been assigned to the unit. The RN is responsible for administering all patients’ medications during the shift. One of the patients who is very ill requires the use of transmission-based precautions for chicken pox.

The RN approaches the room to administer the medication, notes the sign about the type of transmission-based precaution for this patient and thinks “I don’t need to use the precautions”. The RN enters the patient’s room and hangs the intravenous medication. Upon leaving the RN thinks “See I was only in there less than 5 minutes and no harm done. The greater good is I can get the other medications out to patients that need them now.”

Using the principles of management and delegation, how might the RN have:

                        Approached the supervisor?

                        Assigned the staff?

                        Ensured safe patient outcomes?

Using nursing judgment develop a 3 part nursing diagnosis statement for the patient on isolation which includes one NANDA-I diagnosis, an etiology and the defining characteristics (nursing diagnosis + related to + as evidenced by).

                        One (1) assessment to validate the nursing diagnosis.

                        One (1) outcome statement (realistic, measureable and contains a time frame).

Explanation / Answer

1. Delegation, a technique of time management is a part of management skills. In most of the cases, the nurses are qualified for their clinical skills but not for their management skills. An effective delegation is important in assigning works to the staff and successful completion of work, while providing maximum care and comfort to the patient. In this case, the registered nurse (RN) might have approached supervisor, to allow more staff to that area to compensate the leave of another RN.

2. According to 224th RN delegation rules, the RN can delegate the nursing tasks to unlicensed assistive personnel (UAP) for the patients in acute care. In this case, the RN has allotted two UAP individuals.

3. RN is also responsible for effective patient outcomes. As the patient is suffering from chickenpox, the RN must follow the preventive measure to prevent them self from being contaminated and to avoid contamination of other wards. In this case, the patient did not follow preventive measures, so did not ensure safe patient outcomes.

Related Questions

Navigate

• Browse (All)
• Browse S
• Subjects

Integrity-first tutoring: explanations and feedback only — we do not complete graded work. Learn more.