The Nurse Practice Act is in place to provide safe and effective guide lines for care within the scope of practice for an Unlicensed Assistive Personnel (UAP), License Practical Nurse (LPN), and Register Nurse (RN). Without these Acts, patients would be subject to harm and without protection by unqualified and incompetent UPC’s or nurses performing procedures out of their scope of practice. The Nurse Practice laws differ from state to state; some laws are specific, and some laws are general (Dahlkemper, 2013.) It is important for the LPN to know that although, the scope of practice is set per state, each organization can narrow the scope. For a new LPN, there is no room for error or misunderstanding after you graduate and are practicing as a LPN (Dahlkemper, 2013). It is up to the nurse to fully know and understand the law in which the state they choose to practice in, despite the institution’s policies. …show more content…
Tasks which may be delegated and performed under supervision of an RN or LPN are, but not limited to include, meeting patients’ personal hygiene, ambulation, taking vital signs, and needs relating to elimination (Code of Laws- Title 40- Chapter 33 Nurses, 2012). With this in mind, in the state of South Carolina a UAP is not allowed to administer medications. But most importantly, the Board of Nursing regulations preclude the licensed nurse form delegating administration of medications to UAP (State Laws and Regulations Specific to Dialysis