Another quality is delegation a leader should know

Another quality is delegation a leader should know the strengths and weaknesses within
the team dynamics. Delegation is entrusting responsibility to others and it is an important trait for
the safety of patients at the bedside. As charge nurse may have six nurses in the medical surgical
unit, one nurse is a new graduate he or she has only been on their own for one shift. Every nurse
has six patients except for the new graduate. A new patient is arriving shortly the new graduate
should be the next nurse to receive a patient; however, the charge nurse has been told by the
recovery room nurse that this patient will be difficult to care for due to the patients’ medical
history comorbidities and post-operative delirium. The charge nurse is concerned that delegating
this patient to a new graduate may not be an appropriate delegation for this patients care. The
charge nurse will have one of the other more experienced nurse’s hand off one of their more
stable patients to the new graduate and will accept the patient coming from recovery. The new
graduate will be included in aspects of the care to gain experience but will not have the full
responsibility. The charge nurse or leader should always be mindful to not overwhelm the team;
however, the team should be challenged to keep learning and growing their skills. Excellence in
nursing leadership means knowing how to delegate the staff based on their current abilities, but
also delegation that will foster growth for the individuals and the team.
All nursing leaders learn to deal with conflicts, having the right strategy for conflict
resolution is invaluable as a leader. Once a problem has been identified, heading it off as soon as
possible is the best way to begin. Conflicts can arise in multiple scenarios and can involve
patients, families and healthcare team members. A good leader knows how to identify conflicts

PROFESSIONAL NURSING PRACTICE 13
and works with those involved to come up with mutually agreeable solutions. Dealing with
conflict resolution requires listening, evaluating options and implementing solutions.
A charge nurse walking past a patient’s room and hears the patient getting upset with their
nurse; the conflict is about medication administration times. The patient states that his
medication is due right now because this is the time he received it yesterday. The nurse is trying
to explain that he got his medication on a different schedule the day before because he had a
procedure. Today the schedule has changed the patient did clearly not understand but the nurse
was also frustrated and was not working toward a mutually agreeable solution. As the leader the
charge nurse intervened and sat with the patient listening to him and then calmly explained the
situation to him and the reason for the change, she then told him she would write down for him
on his patient care board the current schedule for medication so he could keep track along with
his nurse. The knowledge gave the patient a better sense of control over his care, the nurse was
grateful that the leader came in and quickly resolved the escalation of the situation. Knowing