III Glossary

Accountability: Being answerable to oneself and others for one’s own choices, decisions, and actions as measured against a standard.

Assignment: Routine care, activities, and procedures that are within the authorized scope of practice of the RN, LPN/VN, or routine functions of the assistive personnel.

Assistive Personnel (AP): Any assistive personnel (formerly referred to as ‘‘unlicensed” assistive personnel [UAP]) trained to function in a supportive role, regardless of title, to whom a nursing responsibility may be delegated. This includes, but is not limited to, certified nursing assistants or aides (CNAs), patient-care technicians (PCTs), certified medical assistants (CMAs), certified medication aides, and home health aides.^[1]

Closed-loop communication: A process that enables the person giving the instructions to hear what they said reflected back and to confirm that their message was, in fact, received correctly.

Constructive feedback: Supportive feedback that offers solutions to areas of weakness.

Delegatee: An RN, LPN/VN, or AP who is delegated a nursing responsibility by either an APRN, RN, or LPN/VN who is competent to perform the task and verbally accepts the responsibility.

Delegation: Allowing a delegatee to perform a specific nursing activity, skill, or procedure that is beyond the delegatee’s traditional role but in which they have received additional training.

Delegator: An APRN, RN, or LPN/VN who requests a specially trained delegatee to perform a specific nursing activity, skill, or procedure that is beyond the delegatee’s traditional role.

Five rights of delegation: Right task, right circumstance, right person, right directions and communication, and right supervision and evaluation.

Nursing team members: Advanced practice registered nurses (APRN), registered nurses (RN), licensed practical/vocational nurses (LPN/VN), and assistive personnel (AP).

Scope of practice: Procedures, actions, and processes that a health care practitioner is permitted to undertake in keeping with the terms of their professional license.

Supervision: Appropriate monitoring of the delegated activity, evaluation of patient outcomes, and follow-up with the delegatee at the completion of the activity.

Titrate: Making adjustments to medication dosage per an established protocol to obtain a desired therapeutic outcome.