Guidelines for Developing Delegation Skills

Prerequisites for Delegating

  1. The staff member is organised and effective, demonstrating time and caseload management skills.
  1. They are proactive and ask for supervision.
  1. They are able to identify their own learning needs accurately.
  1. They demonstrate effective practice in their work area.
  1. They can assess and plan treatment within the patient conditions they will delegate (will have a watched assessment to demonstrate this).
  1. They are able to set realistic and SMART goals with their patients.
  1. They are able to identify when a patient is ready /appropriate for discharge

General Principals

  1. It is preferred that new Health Professionals qualified less than a year DO NOT delegate.
  1. Health Professionals who have been qualified for a year or more will be expected to delegate. An individuals’ readiness to delegate will be assessed and training & supervision will support their delegation skills and practice.
  1. Established and Senior HP’s who are new must be inducted into The Calderdale Framework and the relevant workbooks for their service area.
  1. Ideally supervision of a new HP should be from a senior HP or experienced HP in the team.

Learning To Delegate/Developing Delegation Skills

  1. At induction the staff member will watch The Calderdale framework presentation to increase their knowledge & understanding of the model of delegation used.
  1. At induction the staff member will be familiarised with the competency workbook(s) relevant to their clinical setting, and the communication systems in place to support delegation practice.
  1. Prior to delegation the staff member (new HP or established/senior HP new to the organisation) will highlight potentially delegatable patients to their clinical supervisor, identifying why they are suitable and what they would delegate.
  1. Once able to clinically reason in theory with their clinical supervisor they will select appropriate tasks to delegate in practice. These will be discussed with their supervisor initially.
  2. They will then plan a treatment programme and delegate to the AHA (as discussed in supervision), ensuring method and frequency of feedback is agreed.
  1. They will book a follow up appointment with the patient within 2 weeks (community), sooner for acute settings.
  1. The recommended maximum number of patients that can be delegated will be discussed and decided as part of supervision.
  1. Once the supervisor is satisfied and staff member confident and able to delegate competently , they can delegate without initial reference to their supervisor.
  1. The delegating member of staff will seek feedback from the support worker on an ongoing basis to ascertain how well patients are progressing and how the support worker perceives the delegation process to be working.
  1. It is expected that the novice delegator will keep reflective accounts to form part of their CPD.

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