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by Palpitations

Ok, what's the difference between a charge nurse and a staff nurse? Should charge nurses be paid more than staff nurses?

[YADA-YADA]

Acharge nurse, depending on your facility can have many responsibilities. She can:
1. delegate admissions,
2. delegate breaks,
3. determine if there is sufficient staffing for her shift and the next shift and modify as needed.
4. take charge in a code situation,
5. be available to all staff nurses for questions on policy and procedures.
These are the few I can think of. I think she deserves a little extraa money for it. I certainly wouldnot do it for free.
At our hospital they pay a whopping 0.60 an hour for the task.

[Palpitations]

At the hospital where I worked, they didn't pay the charge nurses extra money, even though they were essentially doing the clinical advisors job. And what's worse, you couldn't refuse to be in charge. You had to be in charge and take patients and not get paid any different for it. If you refused the assignment, you would be fired.

Originally posted by YADA-YADA:
Acharge nurse, depending on your facility can have many responsibilities. She can:
1. delegate admissions,
2. delegate breaks,
3. determine if there is sufficient staffing for her shift and the next shift and modify as needed.
4. take charge in a code situation,
5. be available to all staff nurses for questions on policy and procedures.
These are the few I can think of. I think she deserves a little extraa money for it. I certainly wouldnot do it for free.
At our hospital they pay a whopping 0.60 an hour for the task.

[LLDPaRN]

Hello!
I am a nurse who just made the move from telemetry to critical care. However, I can tell you that on my old unit--a 34 bed tele unit with ventilators!--the charge nurse did NOT have an assignment, something which is probably the exception rather than the rule these days. The charge nurse did all of the things described by Yada-Yada, plus more. They helped take off orders and were responsible for the next shift's assignment, and did not get paid extra for this. However, I think in most facilities, the charge nurse has her own patient assignment as well as performing charge duties. That is how things operate in my current job. Hope this helped!

Laurie, RN
Medical CCU

[shellyann]

Originally posted by Palpitations:
Ok, what's the difference between a charge nurse and a staff nurse? Should charge nurses be paid more than staff nurses?

At our facility the charge nurse is paid $1.00 more per hour but for sure she should get paid a heck of a lot more for all the stuff she has to put up with sometimes. Our charge nurse on days is GREAT!!!! She is responsible for making out the assignment in the morning and does most of the calling to the docs, looks and tells us all the lab work and I work on a 38 bed telemetry unit. She really has to know what is going on with all 38 pts. Plus we use her as a resource.

[mcrow]

We have an RN as the charge nurse in our outpatient clinic. When she is gone one of us LPNs are considered charge. No extra pay.

[Palpitations]

Originally posted by mcrow:
We have an RN as the charge nurse in our outpatient clinic. When she is gone one of us LPNs are considered charge. No extra pay.

What are your duties when she's gone?

[iodine]

Originally posted by Palpitations:
What are your duties when she's gone?

The difference between a charge nurse and a staff nurse: responsibility when anything! goes wrong, (where the buck stops) and one of the first few names on the lawsuit. And yes, she/he should be paid a differiential. The staff nurse's duties do not change, except to cover during breaks, because the next level of supervision up should take responsiblilty when the charge nurse is away.

[mcrow]

Originally posted by Palpitations:
What are your duties when she's gone?

The duties as the charge nurse have never been outlined. We feel like they just want to name someone to blame if something goes wrong. In name, we are in charge of clerks who make more than most of us and whose job we are expected to cover when they are gone or overly busy.

[dennis4444]

Our ED is going to go to a designated charge nurse position. We currently use lots of experienced nurses. I am giong to "follow" the change in a research paper for my Masters in Nursing class. I would love to hear from any and all of you.
Thanks
Dennis