A patient admitted to the intensive care unit was placed on ventilator support. The nurse caring for this patient identified on the plan of care that one of the outcomes was that the patient would not develop ventilator-acquired pneumonia (VAP)

Question

To achieve this outcome, the nurse delegates the following to the unlicensed assistive personnel: "Please perform oral care on the patient every 2 hours. In this situation oral care would include using the special swabs we have for our patients on VAP precautions so we can prevent pneumonia." Which of the five rights of delegation did the nurse use? a. Right route
b. Right direction/communication
c. Right dose
d. Right supervision

Answer 1

B
The nurse used right direction/communication. Give a clear, concise description of the task, in-cluding its objective, limits, and expectations. Communication must be ongoing between the nurse and nursing assistive personnel during a shift of care. The nurse did not use right supervi-sion in this scenario. To provide right supervision, provide appropriate monitoring, evaluation, intervention as needed, and feedback. Nursing assistive personnel should feel comfortable asking questions and seeking assistance. There is no right dose or route in the five rights of delegation; right dose and route are included in the rights of medication administration.