There are many tools available to assist you as an RN to organize your thoughts, make nursing judgments, and implement the 5 rights of delegation. SBAR – Situation, Background, Assessment, and Recommendation, is a standardized tool used in many institutions that provides a framework to facilitate clear communication between health care providers.

The components of SBAR are as follows, according to the Joint Commission:

• Situation: Clearly and briefly describe the current situation.
• Background: Provide clear, relevant background information on the patient.
• Assessment: State your professional conclusion, based on the situation and background. State what it is you are concerned about. Identify role responsibilities.
• Recommendation: Tell the person with whom you’re communicating what you need from him or her, in a clear and relevant way. Confirm that they understand your request.

Read the following patient care scenario.

Mrs. Evans is an 86-year-old female that has been assigned to your team. She was admitted to the hospital four days ago with pneumonia. Mrs. Evans was placed on IV antibiotics and cough suppressants and her condition improved. The night RN reports that now Mrs. Evans has an increased cough. Her temperature at 6:00 am was 100.4 degrees F, her heart rate was 98 beats per minute, her BP was 110/55 mmHg, and her respiratory rate was 22 breaths per minute.  You are working with the Assistive Personnel (AP) Eric, today. You will be delegating the task of obtaining Mrs. Evan’s vital signs every 2 hours instead of the routine every 4-hour schedule to Eric.

Develop an SBAR to address delegating to the Unlicensed Assistive Personnel. This link will help you with delegation: National Guidelines for Nursing Delegation (Links to an external site.)

Under the column, RN statement, identify what you will say to the UAP for each step of the SBAR. In the next column, Five Rights of Delegation/Explanation, identify which of the five rights of delegation your statement addresses and provide a brief explanation for your answer.  

The chart is attached