Nursing Assignment: Healthcare Team Roles, Delegation, and Dementia

This nursing assignment report delves into the multifaceted roles within a healthcare team, emphasizing the importance of each member, from physicians to nurses and assistants, in delivering optimal patient care. The report explores the factors that determine team composition, including team size, communication, and task complexity. It highlights the patient's central role as an active participant in their care. The assignment examines a case involving a patient with dementia, analyzing the behavioral disturbances and identifying the required healthcare team members and their functions. Furthermore, it addresses the delegation of tasks among nursing staff, considering the responsibilities of registered nurses, enrolled nurses, and assistants in nursing. The report proposes an efficient staff allocation strategy, considering the needs of surgical patients, and emphasizes the prioritization of patient care to ensure effective healthcare delivery.

Running head: NURSING ASSIGNMENT 1
Nursing Assignment
Student’s Name
University Affiliation

NURSING ASSIGNMENT 2
Module 1
There are several factors that determine the type of healthcare experts who are supposed
to be involved in a healthcare team. Firstly, is the team make up, like having the required size or
the need to reduce lower impacts of status difference between for instance nurses as well as the
clinicians. The second factor is the team process which includes conflict management,
communication structures as well as leadership that reinforces progress and provides clear
expectations and objectives. Thirdly, is the type of the team’s task of matching type and training
to the extent of complexity as well as promoting cohesiveness. Lastly, is the environmental
aspect which entails acquiring of the needed resource as well as establishing the required
resources (Bechtel and Ness, 2010).
According to Doctor Robert Wah, an American Medical Association President, doctors
should lead the healthcare team. He further argues that families and patients need a healthcare
provider who is well prepared and in the best interest to meet the preferences or needs to lead a
healthcare team. Besides, the role of a leader can change from time to time so at times, a
physician, a nurse, a nutritionist or a pharmacist can be the leader (Ciccone et al., 2010).
The most important member of the healthcare team is the patient. According to (Gagnon
et al., 2012), safety is ideal for the doctors and the entire team caring for the patient. Besides,
they (patients) can play a crucial role in their care by being an informed or active member of the
healthcare team
Module 2
The key issue in the situation of Mr. Hughes is likely to be the incidence or the
prevalence of behavioral disturbances as a result of Dementia. Statistically, at some point in life,
over 90 % of individuals with dementia are expected to develop behavioral problems (Gravlin

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and Bittner, 2010). This is witnessed in the case of Mr. Hughes where he has been engaging in
verbally aggressive outbursts towards staff and other patients during his hospitalization. Also, his
mother has reached a point where she cannot look after him and has been admitted to the
rehabilitation unit.
The people who should be in the healthcare team for the case of Robert and their
functions include; clinical decision makers whose function is to manage the clinical aspects of
care and technical consultant whose function is to provide information regarding specialized
aspects of care (Lluch, 2011). However, the support services will enhance, support or boost the
primary care services and the coordination point organizes all efforts. The work of a resource
manager will be to deal with the economic aspect of care, and lastly, the information coordinator
will manage information from different sources.
Module 3
The question on delegation of staff to the patients by a registered nurse calls for first
understanding the role and functions of every person in the healthcare sector. In the case scenario
presented, we are provided with five personnel’s who include one registered nurse one enrolled
nurse and three assistant in nursing (AIN) who are on duty. An AIN must support registered
nurses and enrolled nurses in the delivery of care to the patients. According to Martinez et al.,
(2011) RN registered nurse who has the assessment of the client and delegates the responsibility
for the scope of the nursing practice decision-making framework. The duties of an AIN include
but not limited to patient meals and activities of living (AOL), patient mobility and toileting,
communication, and documentation. The enrolled nurse’s works in the team under guidance by a
registered nurse (Nutting et al., 2011). In the surgical wards, EN works in unison with the RNs to

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plan as well as deliver nursing care. Although their scope is wide, they also provide education in
the hospital settings apart from undertaking other nursing responsibilities such as monitoring
change to the client situation, and administration of drugs among other functions (Potter et al.,
2010).
However, for the case scenario presented, the best way to allocate the staff would be 50/50. This
implies that one RN would deal with 11 patients, one enrolled nurse and one assistant in nursing.
On the other RN, he/she would deal with 11 patients and two AINs. Notably, since ten patients
had gone for surgery, it does not necessarily imply that they will be served and released at the
same time. The best way forward for an RN is to prioritize the patients as they come back to the
unit one after the other. Also, one RN cannot serve all the clients, so they have to be shared
equally between the two RNs and ENs /AINs.

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References
Bechtel, C., & Ness, D. L. (2010). If you build it, will they come? Designing truly patient-
centered health care. Health Affairs, 29(5), 914-920.
Ciccone, M. M., Aquilino, A., Cortese, F., Scicchitano, P., Sassara, M., Mola, E., ... & Bux, F.
(2010). Feasibility and effectiveness of a disease and care management model in the
primary health care system for patients with heart failure and diabetes (Project
Leonardo). Vascular health and risk management, 6, 297.
Gagnon, M. P., Desmartis, M., Labrecque, M., Car, J., Pagliari, C., Pluye, P., ... & Légaré, F.
(2012). Systematic review of factors influencing the adoption of information and
communication technologies by healthcare professionals. Journal of medical systems,
36(1), 241-277.
Gravlin, G., & Bittner, N. P. (2010). Nurses' and nursing assistants' reports of missed care and
delegation. Journal of Nursing Administration, 40(7/8), 329-335.
Lluch, M. (2011). Healthcare professionals’ organisational barriers to health information
technologies—A literature review. International journal of medical informatics, 80(12),
849-862.
Martinez, J., Ro, M., William Villa, N., Powell, W., & Knickman, J. R. (2011). Transforming the
delivery of care in the post–health reform era: what role will community health workers
play?. American Journal of Public Health, 101(12), e1-e5.
Nutting, P. A., Crabtree, B. F., Miller, W. L., Stange, K. C., Stewart, E., & Jaén, C. (2011).
Transforming physician practices to patient-centered medical homes: lessons from the
national demonstration project. Health affairs, 30(3), 439-445.

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Potter, P., Deshields, T., & Kuhrik, M. (2010). Delegation practices between registered nurses
and nursing assistive personnel. Journal of nursing management, 18(2), 157-165.