Teaching nursing delegation: analyzing nurse practice acts.

Teaching delegation to nurses, especially for those nurses who have mostly practiced in primary nursing, is challenging. Many staff development and continuing education instructors are teaching delegation principles to nurses today because good delegation skills are needed to effectively implement current skill-mix and patient-focused care changes. In these courses, nurses almost always want guidelines on what they can and cannot delegate to unlicensed assistive personnel and LPN/LVNs. The best foundation for teaching what can and cannot be delegated is the nursing practice act in the state, even though analyzing state practice acts can be cumbersome. Analyzing practice acts as the basis for teaching delegation principles is a critical requirement for today's staff development/continuing educator.