RN, LPN/LVN, nurse assistant, nurse practitioner

caliotter3 · Jun 15, 2008

Off hand I don't have a resource for your question, but I think if you consider it a moment, it is pretty basic. The nurse practitioner is advanced in experience and assessment abilities. That person will be on the top of the totem pole, so to speak, with only the doctor delegating to her/him. The staff RN is the one who will be doing the most delegating. She/he is responsible for making the nursing assessment and assigning tasks to the others on the team. The RN will delegate responsibilities to the LPN that are within the scope of a licensed nurse but do not require that degree of judgment required to make assessment calls. The LPN performs routine nursing procedures. The RN will assign these routine nursing procedures based on their assessment of the patient. The LPN provides observational data to the RN who synthesizes the data to make decisions about the patient's care. The CNA is delegated tasks that are task oriented and require very little judgment. For example, the CNA will take a patient's vital signs. The LPN will report abnormal vital signs to the RN. The RN will further assess the patient and make any changes to the nursing care plan, such as delegating to the LPN to administer an ordered medication and delegating to the CNA to continue to take vital signs and report them. I would try to look at the question this way to categorize it: task-CNA routine nursing procedure/gathering of data-LPN nursing assessment/judgment-RN advanced practice to include limited prescribing-APRN

Maybe someone else can recommend some texts that cover this concept better than my explanation.

NurseBrittney · Jun 15, 2008

I know only an RN or above can do assessements.

In my books it says lpns do vital signs and some meds.

CNAs assist with ADLs

kgrl819 · Jun 15, 2008

Also, the LPN can do dressing changes and tube feedings unless the anwer has some sort of assesment/documentation in it.

Good luck! :smokin:

december2905 · Jun 16, 2008

do not delegate what you can eat!

e - evaluate

a - assess

t - teach

only the rn should do this...hope that helps