QLexNursing

🟢 Oral care is a basic, routine, noninvasive activity of daily living (ADL) that falls within the scope of practice of an AP.

🟢 The nurse is responsible for assessing, planning, and evaluating, while the AP can safely perform assigned direct care tasks like hygiene.

🟢 Delegating oral care allows the nurse to focus on higher-level tasks such as assessments, teaching, and medication administration.

🟢 The nurse must still supervise and ensure that the care is completed appropriately but does not need to personally perform this task.

🟢 Therefore, assisting a client with oral care is an appropriate and safe task to delegate to an AP.

Provide instructions about client care to a family member over the telephone

🟢 Providing instructions about client care involves teaching, explanation, and clarification, which are nursing responsibilities requiring professional judgment.

🟢 Telephone teaching often requires assessment of understanding, adjustment of instructions, and consideration of the client's clinical condition.

🟢 APs do not have the scope to provide formal teaching or care instructions, especially over the phone.

🟢 Delegating this to an AP risks miscommunication and incomplete or inaccurate teaching.

🟢 Thus, the nurse must not delegate client-care instructions to the AP.

Determine if the PRN pain medication administered 30 min ago has helped

🟢 Evaluating whether a PRN pain medication was effective is part of the nursing process (evaluation).

🟢 This requires assessment skills, including reviewing pain scales, observing nonverbal cues, and integrating clinical context.

🟢 APs can report observations, but they cannot be responsible for determining medication effectiveness or altering care based on that evaluation.

🟢 The responsibility for evaluating the client’s response to medications lies with the licensed nurse.

🟢 Therefore, the nurse should not delegate this evaluation task to an AP.

Teach a client how to measure their own blood pressure

🟢 Teaching is a core RN responsibility that requires assessing readiness to learn, tailoring explanations, and ensuring comprehension.

🟢 Teaching a client to measure their own blood pressure may impact long-term self-management and requires accurate demonstration and validation.

🟢 APs can reinforce previously taught information if directed, but they should not be responsible for initial teaching.

🟢 Delegating teaching to an AP could result in incomplete or incorrect education.

🟢 Thus, teaching blood pressure self-monitoring must be done by the nurse, not delegated.