“But in both [hospitals and private houses] let whoever is in charge keep this simple question in her head, (not how can I always do this right thing myself, but) how can I provide for this right thing to be always done?”
~ Florence Nightingale

The founder of modern nursing believed in delegation!!! Working with others has always been a fundamental aspect of nursing, and traditionally the major types of interaction have been collaboration with other health professionals as well as the nurse delegating to competent others.

Nurses are present most continuously with clients and hold a tradition of using a variety of nursing assistive personnel in order to meet the needs of more clients than one nurse can care for alone. Today the world is facing a critical nursing shortage. The profession of nursing must determine how to continue providing safe, effective nursing care with decreased numbers of nurses caring for increased numbers of clients.

The importance of working with and through others and the abilities to delegate, assign, manage and supervise have never been as critical and challenging as in the complex and complicated world of 21st century health care. Recent decades have seen an upheaval in health care triggered by an escalation of new knowledge and technology. There has never been a greater demand for nursing. At the same time, the number of nurses is not keeping pace with the growing needs for nursing services.

Delegation is a key concept in the medication aide discussion. States that have medication aides have recognized that understanding delegation and having a reasonable definition and process outlined in their Nurse Practice Act and/or the regulations implementing the Act, are critical to the successful implementation of medication aides.

The National Council of State Boards of Nursing (NCSBN) has done a lot of work on this topic - a topic that many nurses know little about and tend to be troubled by. So please read the enclosed Fact Sheet for more details on this critical theme and other matters related to it.

Life Services Network believes that the time has come in Illinois for medication aides to be discussed and debated in the legislature, with a deliberate effort to look at all sides of the issue. A value statement of the National Council of State Boards of Nursing reads: Integrity - Doing the right thing for the right reason through informed, open and ethical debate. Can Illinois do any less?

Resources:

Click here to read the Joint Statement on Delegation ANA and NCSBN.

Click here to read the NCSBN’s first Job Analysis of Medication Assistants (2006).

Click here to view NCSBN’s Model Curriculum for Medication Administration by Unlicensed Assistive Personnel (UAP

Click here to read the Executive Summary of the 1998 Washington state Nurse Delegation Study.