Healthcare team would on the surface seem to be good delegation, but is not.
Delegating shower assistance of a sometimes sexually inappropriate geriatric male patient to a younger female UAP.
On the surface this scenario would seem to be a good delegation assignment. This would allow the RN to focus on other tasks, such as medication administration while the UAP assists the client with a time consuming shower. However, this scenario is not a good delegation because of the UAP’s gender and the client’s inappropriate behavior. This scenario could cause the female UAP to be sexually harassed by the inappropriate geriatric male client.
This decision to delegate would not be supported due to the UAP’s potential for harm. In most cases it is the patient’s risk for harm that determines whether or not the decision supported, but in this case, it is the UAP that could suffer potentially avoidable harm.
When considering the task’s complexity, the decision to delegate would be justified. In this situation, the UAP would likely have no problems providing showering assistance to any other client.
The decision to delegate would once again be supported since this situation does not require the delegated UAP have additional problem solving skills. Hopefully, the RN would reevaluate the factors involved in this scenario and delegate the showering assistance to a male UAP, instead of a female.
The task should not have been delegated after reviewing the level of unpredictability that