Delegation vs Supervision of unlicensed school personnel in CA

[wenjvill]

Hi,

I really need help on which specific tasks should I delegate to unlicensed school personnel and which tasks I need supervise. Please assist me on specific procedures that I can delegate or supervised in school setting. If you have a website that spells out these tasks, it would really be of great help to me. Legal links or anything that is related to delegation vs supervision. Thank you.:confused:

[Neveranurseagain, RN]

First, you need to know your nurse practice act for you state, as well as the education code. Most BON have statutes that prevent RN/LPN from delegating certain tasks to unlicensed personnel. Our school district gets around that by having a the principal of school delgate who may give medications and do procedures. So he has delegated meds and DM care to the school nurse as well as the office staff. So when an office staff member administers meds in my absence, it is because the principal delegated the task, not me.

[schooldistrictnurse]

There may be some confusion of terms here. Only a nurse can legally delegate a nursing task. The principal may assign the task, but the nurse delegates it. Use this link for a more complete answer.

http://www.nasn.org/Default.aspx?tabid=349

Things do vary state by state. In Wisconsin, for example, unlicensed personnel are allowed by specific statement in the law to administer medication. Therefore, this is not a delegated task. DM management is delegated and supervised by the nurse.

Be prepared for lots of responses on this question!