Which nursing actions can a nurse delegate to unlicensed assistive personnel (UAP)?

Delegating post-operative vital signs to unlicensed assistive personnel (UAP) is appropriate because assessing and recording vital signs is within the scope of practice for UAP. They are trained to measure and document vital signs such as temperature, heart rate, blood pressure, and respiratory rate while being supervised by a licensed nurse.

This action supports the workflow of nursing care, allowing licensed nurses to focus on more complex tasks that require critical thinking and clinical judgment, such as interpreting the vital signs in the context of the patient's overall condition, making decisions based on those interpretations, and providing patient education.

In contrast, more complex actions such as medication administration, assessing patient pain levels, and providing patient education are responsibilities that require a deeper level of nursing knowledge and clinical skills, which UAP typically do not possess. These tasks involve critical assessments and interventions that should be conducted by licensed nursing staff to ensure patient safety and effective care.