According to an article published by the Joint Commission on Accreditation of Healthcare Organizations, “The combination of too few nurses and nursing support personnel, coupled with excessive paperwork and administrative tasks, leaves too little time for nurses to spend on direct patient care. Care is literally being left undone”. A nurse has a large number of responsibilities while caring for patients including documentation, assessments, medication administration, and assuring the safety of the patients. By having assistive personnel on the floor it enables the nurse to provide better quality care with the use of delegation. According to the American Nurses Association, delegation is “the transfer of responsibility for the performance of an activity from one individual to another while retaining accountability for the outcome” (Cherry & Jacob, 2011, p. 411). When a nurse delegates a task, the delegatee assumes responsibility for competing the task, but the nurse remains accountable for the outcome that the delegated task has on the patient (Cherry & Jacob, 2011, p. 411). As the nurse remains accountable for the outcome of the delegated task on the patient, it is important for the nurse to consider the aspects of safe delegation. To develop safe delegation practices the nurse must have a firm background …show more content…
Each state nurse practice act “defines the scope and limitations of professional nursing practice” (Cherry & Jacob, 2011, p. 147). Examples of key aspects included in state practice acts regarding delegation include delegation defined by that state, what can and cannot be delegated, the roles of assistive personnel, the amount of supervision needed with a delegated task, risks that accompany delegating a task and inappropriately delegating a task (Cherry & Jacob, 2011, p. 412). INSERT MARYLAND STATE PRACTICE ACT EXAMPLES