You are working on a small medical admissions unit and have asked a nursing assistant to perform vital signs and do the observations. She takes the temperature, pulse, saturation, pain level and blood pressure of every patient on the unit, as asked. Approximately one hour later you ask if all the observations were OK. The nursing assistant replies that the patient in Room 9-A+ had a temperature of 39* Celsius. You ask why she had not informed you of this immediately. She replies that it was her job to do all the observations as you asked, and that is what she has done.
After reading the scenario, take some time to reflect on delegation, then answer substantively to the following questions.
What are the principles that guide delegation to any coworker?
What does this scenario tell you about managing/leading people in the clinical setting?
What does this tell you about the need to understand what we do and why?
Is there a place for understanding the values of care in this scenario?
