Editing RN Delegation and Supervision (section)

== Key definitions ==

* '''Delegation.''' Allowing a delegatee to perform a specific nursing activity, skill, or procedure that is beyond the delegatee's traditional role and not routinely performed, but which the delegatee has been trained and found competent to do (NCSBN and ANA, 2019).
* '''Assignment.''' Directing an individual to do something that is already within that person's own scope of practice or existing job description. Giving an LPN/LVN a group of stable clients is an assignment; asking a nursing assistant to reposition a client is generally an assignment as well.
* '''Supervision.''' The provision of guidance and direction, evaluation, and follow-up by the RN for the accomplishment of a task.
* '''Delegator.''' The RN who transfers the authority.
* '''Delegatee.''' The person who receives it, most often an LPN/LVN or unlicensed assistive personnel (UAP).
* '''Accountability.''' Being answerable for the outcome. The RN is accountable for the ''decision'' to delegate, for the adequacy of direction and supervision, and for the overall outcome of care. The delegatee is accountable for ''performing'' the delegated task correctly and for reporting results.

The exam-relevant distinction is that authority to perform a task can be transferred, but the RN's accountability for the nursing care of the client cannot.