Five-Rights Fran — Delegation Deep Dive: RN vs LPN vs UAP Scope
The Five Rights tell you how to delegate — the scope matrix tells you what can never leave the RN's hands: anything that starts with Evaluate, Assess, or Teach
Fran's unit takes four admissions in one hour with one RN (her), one LPN, and one UAP — and every request that lands on her desk that hour is a scope trap.
Fran runs the busiest step-down unit in the hospital, and new nurses watch her sort a full assignment board in under two minutes. She never decides task by task — she runs every task through the EAT filter first: anything requiring Evaluating, Assessing, or Teaching stays with the RN, because those three verbs are nursing judgment. What remains is matched to the LPN (stable clients, predictable outcomes, data collection, most scheduled medications, sterile technique) or the UAP (activities of daily living and routine measurements on stable clients). Delegation transfers the task, never the accountability — and the moment a delegated client's condition changes, the assignment changes with it.
Read Five-Rights Fran's full story →The story arc
The setup
Four admissions, three staff, twelve clients. Fran builds the board by acuity first: the fresh post-op and the client on a titrating drip stay with her.
The turn
The UAP, eager to help, offers to 'check on' the new admission and let Fran know if anything looks wrong.
The crisis
The LPN asks whether she can push the IV morphine and hang the first unit of blood on her stable client so Fran can take report.
The save
Fran re-sorts the board: the LPN takes the stable clients' oral and IM medications and a sterile dressing change; the UAP takes hygiene, ambulation, intake and output, and routine vitals on stable clients with exact report-back numbers; Fran keeps assessments, teaching, IV push, and the blood.
NCLEX study section — Delegation Deep Dive: RN vs LPN vs UAP Scope
What this chapter is testing: the recognition cues, the numbers and the priority action.
Study section: Management of Care
Take this chapter into practice questions on the same topic.