Reducing the Risks of Delegation

Abstract

School nurses are challenged by Federal Civil Rights Laws and the Standards of School Nursing Practice to care for a burgeoning population of students with special healthcare needs. Due to the realities of current school nurse-to-student ratios, school nurses are frequently responsible for directing unlicensed assistive personnel (UAPs) to support the health and safety needs of students, where State Nurse Practice Acts, state legislation, and local policy mandates allow. The delegation of health care tasks to UAPs poses many professional, ethical, and legal dilemmas for school nurses. One strategy to reduce the risks of delegation is through the use of procedure skills checklists, as highlighted by the experience of one large urban school district. Part 1 of this two-part article (Shannon & Kubelka, 2013) explored the scope of the problem and the principles of delegation, including legal and ethical considerations. Part 2 discusses the use of procedure skills checklists by school nurses as a strategy to reduce the risks of delegation of student special health care tasks to UAPs.

Keywords

delegation special needs role of the school nurse disabilities procedure checklists

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References

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