You can delegate the task. You can never delegate the accountability, and you can never delegate assessment, teaching, evaluation or the unstable patient. Sort a shift’s worth of tasks by who may do them, build a delegation sentence that actually meets the five rights, then handle the conversations nobody warns you about.
Who may do this?
0700, six patients, one UAP and one LPN on the team. For each task, choose the lowest level of licensure that may safely perform it — and notice what never leaves you.
Say it so it can be done
You are delegating a set of vital signs on Mrs. Marks in 412 to Marcus, a UAP. Choose one line for each part, and watch the sentence assemble on the right.
The hard conversations
Anger at the bedside is almost always fear, grief, pain or powerlessness in disguise. Choose the response, then read what it does.
The rule underneath
Make a choice on the left.
Never delegated — four words
Assessment — the initial one and every ongoing one, and any interpretation of data. A UAP may measure; only you may interpret.
Teaching — patient and family teaching in any form. An LPN may reinforce teaching you have already given, per state scope.
Evaluation — whether the intervention worked. “Did the morphine help?” is your question to answer.
The unstable patient — anything unpredictable, and anything requiring clinical judgment.
Also yours: nursing diagnosis and care planning. And you keep the accountability for every task you properly delegated.