Reference no: EM133765414

Question

The professional judgement of the nurse often factors in under delegation of tasks to UAP. An example is the routine assessment of fingerstick Capillary Blood Glucose (CBG) for patients in the critical care setting. Often, these patients are on vasoactive medications or insulin infusions to support adequate blood pressure or maintain euglycemia. The professional nurse is aware that these medications may cause inaccurate CBG due to peripheral vasoconstriction or rapid changes in blood glucose. The nurse makes the decision to carry out the CBG assessments themselves and not delegate this to UAP. This has the effect of increasing the nurse's workload and possibly creating friction within the patient care team because the nurse doesn't delegate something as "simple" as a CBG to UAP. This situation can be addressed by effective communication of the patient's status and the rationale of the decision to team members. The professional nurse can also take this opportunity to enhance the knowledge and skills of the UAP by educating and demonstrating proper technique and result reporting with return demonstration to ensure competence in the task. This can be documented for future reference.