✨ Featured Lessons · Lesson 4 of 8 · 60 sec

Delegation Cheat Code: Never Delegate What You EAT

👥 Three letters sort most delegation questions on the exam. Keep them for yourself, then match every other task to the stability of the client and the scope of the person you hand it to.

💡 Key idea

RN keeps Evaluate, Assess, Teach, judgment and the unstable. UAP: ADLs and vitals on stable clients. LPN: stable, predictable, most meds (usually no IV push), reinforcing.

🧠 Why it matters

The RN never delegates what she can EAT: EVALUATE, ASSESS, TEACH. Add nursing judgment and anything involving an unstable client, and that is the RN's list. Unlicensed assistive personnel do routine, predictable tasks for stable clients: hygiene, feeding, walking, turning, intake and output, and vital signs on stable clients, then they report what they found. LPNs care for stable clients with predictable outcomes, give most medications (IV push medications and starting blood transfusions are usually excluded by state law or facility policy), change sterile dressings and reinforce teaching the RN already gave. Client stability, together with the delegatee's scope of practice and competence, decides, not the simplicity of the task.

🏥 In the real world

📋 'Take vital signs on the new chest-pain admission' is a simple task for an unstable client, so it stays with the RN. 'Walk Mr. Lee to the bathroom' is a simple task for a stable client, so it goes to the UAP. The task did not change; the client did.

📌 Takeaways

Never delegate Evaluate, Assess, Teach
UAP: stable clients, routine tasks, reports findings
LPN: stable and predictable; reinforces teaching, does not do initial teaching

📖 Terms in this lesson

EAT (what the RN never delegates): Evaluate, Assess, Teach: what the RN keeps, with judgment and unstable clients; LPNs collect data and reinforce teaching, and assistive personnel measure and report routine data.

✅ Test yourself

Which task can the RN delegate to unlicensed assistive personnel?

Assessing a client who just returned from surgery
Evaluating a client's response to a new pain medication
Assisting a stable client with a shower
Teaching a client how to self-inject insulin

Answer: C · Assisting a stable client with a shower

Hygiene for a stable client is routine and predictable; the other three are evaluation, teaching and assessment.

Which client is most appropriate to assign to an LPN?

A client admitted 30 minutes ago with shortness of breath
A client whose blood pressure has fallen 40 points this hour
A client with stable diabetes on scheduled oral medications
A client who needs the initial education about a new ostomy

Answer: C · A client with stable diabetes on scheduled oral medications

LPNs care for stable clients with predictable outcomes; the others are unstable or require initial RN assessment or teaching.

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