Iam student nurse Evans.I was given an exam question on what nurses should not delegate to the UAP'S and  I answered incorrectly. The answer i put was nuses should let the uap's asses the patient. Can you please tell me what nurses should delegate to the uap's thankyou.

I think it is an unlicensed assistive personnel...like CNAs, etc

The answer to your question is probably something like this:

Although there are many, many competent and experienced UAPs out there (i have been schooled by a few!), an assessment is NEVER something that a nurse should completely delegate to an UAP. Nurses have the additional training to recognize signs and symptoms that can signal that something is going wrong with the patient. Licensed personnel put their license (and the patient) on the line by delegating something that is out of the scope of a UAP.

(FYI, I have had CNAs that have alerted me to a patient going downhill. This is not a dig on UAPs. I was one myself for several years)

If I have UAPs assess a patient (because they are nursing students, or want to learn, etc) I ALWAYS do my own assessment. We can compare notes, but it is my assessment that gets charted.

Delegation to UAPs is usually limited to things like ADLs (eating, bathing, ambulating, dressing, etc), vitals, blood glucose monitoring, changing linens (in some places you can get advanced training to remove/insert IV lines, draw blood, insert foleys, etc).

The American Nurses Association (ANA) has defined nursing as the "diagnosis and treatment of human response to actual or potential health problems."  Deriving a nursing diagnosis and developing and implementing a nursing plan of care is considered a professional nursing responsibility. (ANA website) Also see this helpful article: http://www.nursingworld.org/mods/archive/mod311/cerm202.htm. It gives more specifics on delegating, etc.

Check your hospital for regs on what they allow UAPs to do.

Just remember that as a nurse, it is your license and the patient's safety on the line at the end of the day. Think about it that way...would you want to take someone else's word for your patient's health status?

Hope this helps :)