Nurse Delegation Skit

Situation: The day shift RN is giving report to the oncoming evening shift RN concerning Mr. T., a 75-year-old patient who suffered a CVA one week ago.

The day nurse informs the evening nurse that Mr. T. has been having difficulty swallowing and needs to be fed. The day nurse expresses frustration that it took her 30 minutes to feed the patient at lunch, and this resulted in a very busy shift for her. The evening nurse becomes distracted during the conversation and interrupts the day nurse with an unrelated comment.

Following report, the evening nurse assigns the CNA the responsibility of feeding Mr. T. but fails to state the patient’s condition and the fact that he has difficulty swallowing.

Mr.T. has difficulty swallowing while the CNA feeds him dinner very quickly. As the patient is also somewhat aphasic, he cannot tell the CNA to feed him more slowly. The patient starts choking. The CNA leaves the room in a panic yelling for help.

The patient is then sent to ICU having been diagnosed with aspiration pneumonia. The next day nurse manager calls a meeting with both day and evening RNs and the CNA to discuss the situation and what happened with Mr. T.

Roles: Players:

 Day Shift RN  Evening Shift RN  CNA  Patient (Mr.T.)  Nurse Manager