Deciding Delegation Using the Nurse Practice Act
Which of the following tasks would you be willing to delegate to a nursing assistive personnel or licensed practical nurse/licensed vocational nurse? Use your state’s Nurse Practice Act or a decision tree created by the National Council of State Boards of Nursing or a State Board of Nursing as a reference for this case.
- Uncomplicated wet-to-dry dressing change on a patient 3 days post-hip replacement
- Every 2 hours checks on a patient with soft wrist restraints to assess circulation, movement, and comfort
- Cooling measures for a patient with a temperature of 104°F
- Calculation of intravenous (IV) credits, clearing IV pumps, and completing shift intake/output totals
- Completing phlebotomy for daily drawing of blood
- Holding pressure on the insertion site of a femoral line that has just been removed
- Educating a patient about components of a soft diet
- Conducting guaiac stool tests for occult blood
- Performing electrocardiographic testing
- Feeding a patient with swallowing precautions (high risk of choking post-cardiovascular accident [CVA])
- Oral suctioning
- Tracheostomy care
- Ostomy care
Instructions:
- By utilizing the Florida State Board of Nursing standards decide which of the following tasks could be delegated to an UAP or a LPN/LVN.
- Use APA format with citations
