Accountability and responsibility are two key concepts which are of significant importance to deliver safe nursing practice in order to maintain the safety of patients (Battie. R, Steelman. V, 2014). The terms accountability and responsibility are often synonymously used in healthcare because of the uncertainty that nurses have about their own accountability. This uncertainty has arisen due to the transformation of the nurse’s role, seen to be only a ‘nurse’ who carried out a simple task to now being an individual practitioner, expected to use evidence based practice and obliged to make decisions in the best interests of patients (Reed, 1992, cited by Savage. J, Moore. L, 2004). A registered nurse is seen to be accountable for the judgements,
