Who is ultimately accountable for the ongoing evaluation of a client's care?

The registered nurse is ultimately accountable for the ongoing evaluation of a client's care due to their comprehensive training and professional scope of practice. RNs are responsible for assessing patient health, formulating nursing diagnoses, developing care plans, and implementing interventions. Throughout a patient's care, they continuously evaluate the effectiveness of the care plan and modify it as necessary, ensuring that the patient’s needs are met.

This level of responsibility correlates with the education and clinical judgment required of a registered nurse. While other team members, like the patient care associate, nurse manager, and medical assistant, play essential roles in supporting patient care, their responsibilities do not encompass the full scope of clinical evaluation and care management expected from an RN. The nurse manager may oversee staff and the overall workings of a unit but is not directly involved in the continuous evaluation of individual patients' clinical care. Similarly, patient care associates and medical assistants support various tasks but do not have the same level of responsibility for ongoing assessments of patient care outcomes.