You  are working as a charge nurse on a medical-surgical unit in an acute  healthcare facility. One of the staff nurses who recently from  bereavement leave has been assigned to care for an elderly client, newly  diagnosed with stage IV pancreatic cancer. While you are visiting with  the client, the nurse is completing her assessment. The client requests  assistance to set up hospice care, complete an advanced directive, and  reach out to his estranged daughter. The nurse stated, “I can get you  the paperwork for the advance directive, but I can’t call your child for  you, I am not a social worker.” The nurse leaves the room and asks to  speak with you stating, “I can’t care for this client, I need my client  assignment changed now or else I will go home.”

As  the charge nurse, you step in and change the nurse’s client assignment  and offer to assist the client with his requests. Later, you have the  opportunity to debrief with the nurse regarding her reaction and  decisions regarding the client’s requests and make some recommendations  on how the nurse could have responded differently. You write up a  summary of the events and include the follow-up conversation with the  nurse.

Instructions

Compose a written memo of the situation and debrief for the employee’s personnel file. Include the following in the summary:

• Analysis of the internal and external cues impacting the responses of the staff nurse and the charge nurse.
• Describe how these factors influenced the clinical decision making of both nurses.
• Emotional intelligence action plan for the nurse based on interactions observed with the client and the charge nurse.