Submit one reflective journal entry for the Concept:  Leadership.

Leadership

In the clinical setup, nurses often face challenges that require exemplary leadership to resolve. One of the notable challenges is the diverse caseload that requires attention. This happened to me in my attachment at the emergency department. A neighboring hospital was closed due to licensure and misconduct issues, causing an influx of patients in the hospital where I was attached. In one week, the number of patients attended in a day had exceeded double the usual amount. The nursing department was overstretched before the hospital management hired more staff to cater to the increasing caseload. One day, I was assigned five patients to monitor fluid infusion and other IV drugs. Since I was not experienced in dealing with this number of patients, I foresaw the possible occurrence of burnout and patient mismanagement and delegated some of the duties to a fellow student in the department.

Delegation is an essential leadership skill that all nurses should possess. This skill usually manifests together with critical thinking in clinical settings. A nurse must critically think about the situation and decide whether it is appropriate to delegate some tasks to a second person (Walker, Ball, Cleary, & Pisani, 2021). The circumstance, communication, supervision, task, and person should be appropriate for the delegation (Barrow & Sharms, 2018). After delegating some duties, the delegator retains the responsibility of any outcome (Barrow & Sharma, 2018). While issuing the orders to a fellow student, I was aware of my liability for mistakes that could happen, but I saw it wise to take this risk than offer poor services to patients.