Registered nurse perception of the current role of the staff registered nurse in an acute care pediatric hospital

The current health care environment is one of clients expecting quality care for everyone who needs it and of third-party payers expecting cost containment in the provision of this care. The process of cost containment often focuses on redesigning the role of the registered nurse (RN). The premise of this study is that before a role can be redesigned, it must first be assessed to determine what it currently encompasses. Six groups of nurses were asked to create lists of what RNs currently do. They then divided their lists into what must be done by the RN, what may be delegated to another team member, and what belonged to other departments. When asked what they preferred to do, preferred not to do, considered a priority, and considered part of the nurse's professional role, there were differences between staff nurse responses and manager responses.