Leadership & Professional Practice · Topic 15 of 31
Delegation: The Five Rights
Delegating a task to the wrong person doesn't just fail the patient — it makes YOU legally liable.
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Delegation
Handing a task to someone else — the right task, to the right person, with the right follow-up. The RN still owns the decision.
Task · Circumstance · Person · Direction · Supervision — if one fails, don't delegate
Assessment, teaching, evaluation — or an unstable patient
The RN owns the decision and the follow-up · the delegatee owns doing it right
Pick a task. Who can do it?
Look it upNCLEX-style answers for a stable patient. Real scope depends on your state's nurse practice act and your facility's policy.
The five rights
All five, every timeIf one right fails, don't delegate
Keep it · delegate it
RN keeps
Delegate to UAP (stable)
Right direction, out loud
Say it like thisTake it back when…
Red flagsDelegation or assignment?
| What | Handing off a specific task outside their routine role |
|---|---|
| Example | A trained UAP does a fingerstick glucose for your patient |
| RN is accountable for | The decision, the directions and the follow-up |
| Delegatee is accountable for | Doing it right · speaking up if unsure |
| Needs | All five rights + a competency check |
Delegate the right task to the right person under the right supervision — never assessment, teaching, evaluation, or an unstable patient. Handing it off never hands off your accountability.
Sources · Definitions and responsibilities from the NCSBN/ANA National Guidelines for Nursing Delegation (2019). Scope of practice varies by state nurse practice act and facility policy.
Delegation: The Five Rights
Delegating a task to the wrong person doesn't just fail the patient — it makes YOU legally liable. The Five Rights framework is your decision tree before every handoff.
The Five Rights of Delegation is the structured framework the RN uses BEFORE handing off any task. They are: Right Task (is this task appropriate to delegate — stable, routine, predictable outcome?), Right Circumstance (is the patient's current condition stable enough that the task won't require clinical judgment mid-execution?), Right Person (does the delegatee have the legal scope, training, and demonstrated competency for this specific task?), Right Direction/Communication (have you given clear, specific, measurable instructions — what to do, when to report back, and what findings are abnormal?), and Right Supervision/Evaluation (can you provide appropriate oversight and evaluate the outcome?). These five checkpoints must ALL be met — if any single right fails, delegation is inappropriate. The RN retains accountability for the delegation decision itself, even when the task is performed by someone else. This means the RN is answerable for choosing to delegate, not just for the outcome. Delegation is not the same as assignment: delegation transfers a task that is within the RN's own scope to someone who wouldn't independently own that task, while assignment distributes tasks already within each team member's scope.
Key Distinctions
Don't confuse delegation with assignment — delegation transfers authority for a task outside the delegatee's independent scope, while assignment distributes tasks within each person's existing scope. Students often think accountability transfers with the task; it does not — the RN keeps accountability for the decision to delegate. Right Supervision belongs in this framework as a pre-delegation checkpoint, not just an after-the-fact activity.
Clinical Pearl
Think 'TCPDS' — Task, Circumstance, Person, Directions, Supervision. If you can't check all five boxes before you hand it off, you don't hand it off.
Knowledge Check
3 quick questions on the must-knows for this topic.
When the RN delegates a task, accountability for the decision transfers too.
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