Delegation: what it means to acute care nurses.

As health care costs rise, nurses are increasingly delegating tasks to unlicensed assistive personnel (UAP). The purpose of this phenomenologic study was to describe delegation from the perspective of the acute care nurse. We analyzed interviews with staff nurses, and a description of the meaning of delegation was developed using Donabedian's structure, process, outcome model to organize the findings. The process of delegation centered on communication and on nurse-UAP relationship and was shaped by the structural themes. The outcomes of delegation included nursing and patient outcomes. An enhanced content on communication and interpersonal relations is needed in nursing education.