Prioritization, Delegation, and Assignment: Practice Exercises for Medical-Surgical Nursing

This must-have workbook helps students learn the prioritization and delegation skills needed to survive nursing school, pass the NCLEX-RN® examination, and make the transition to practice in today's healthcare environment. Consisting of three parts plus an answer key, this resource provides numerous opportunities for students to review cases and answer questions similar to those they will see on the NCLEX-RN examination - including questions in alternate-item formats . Part 1, written by delegation expert Ruth Hansten, is an introduction that provides a practical review of clinical delegation skills and serves as a framework for the exercises that follow. Part 2 consists cases of patients who have relatively straightforward health problems followed by NCLEX examination-style questions focusing on prioritization, delegation, and assignment. Part 3 consists of complex, unfolding cases involving patients who have multiple health conditions, as well as complex patient assignments.

• An introduction by prioritization and delegation expert Ruth Hansten explains the importance of developing sound clinical skills and judgment in the areas of prioritization, delegation, and assignment.
• NCLEX-style questions help students develop fundamental skills in prioritization, delegation, and assignment and become familiar with the NCLEX examination format.
• Questions in Parts 2 and 3 are organized by body system and by complexity, respectively, to allow for easy use with any medical-surgical nursing text.
• Both sections of exercises give students essential hands-on practice in prioritizing (deciding what to do first), delegating (giving specific tasks to assistive personnel and supervising satisfactory completion of those tasks), and assignment (giving responsibility for the overall care of particular patients to appropriate personnel).
• The questions in Part 3 are more complex than those in Part 2, allowing students to master core concepts using unambiguous cases before applying this knowledge to patients with more complicated, multidimensional case presentations.
• Flexible organization allows the workbook to be used with any Elsevier medical-surgical nursing text.
• The answer key provides rationales for correct as well as incorrect answers, reinforcing the concepts presented in each unit.
• Questions follow NCLEX style, and about 10% represent the new alternate-item question format.
• The workbook is three-hole punched and perforated for convenience.

Linda A. LaCharity formerly, Accelerated Program Director, Assistant Professor, College of Nursing, University of Cincinnati, Cincinnati, Ohio, USA.

Candice K. Kumagai formerly, Clinical Instructor, School of Nursing, University of Texas at Austin, Austin, Texas, USA.