Intentions of Kentucky School Nurses to Delegate Diabetes-Related Tasks to Unlicensed Assistive Personnel

Abstract

Many children have diagnosed diabetes that must be safely managed at school. New laws have created the potential for school systems to rely more heavily on unlicensed assistive personnel (UAP) than on nurses to deliver health services, including administration of insulin injections. Using the theory of planned behavior as a framework, aims were to (1) determine the nature and extent to which health services related to diabetes were being delegated to UAP in Kentucky schools, (2) describe the attitudes of Kentucky school nurses regarding the delegation of diabetes health services to UAP, and (3) examine the relationship of selected variables to school nurses’ intentions to delegate diabetes health services. Survey results revealed that school nurses in Kentucky intended to delegate some diabetes-related tasks despite their lack of support for delegation of those tasks.