hey guys,
I need a bit of advice. No one on our med surgical unit wants the responsibility of being charge nurse. And honestly neither do I.
Today, i volunteered to go in for an extra-shift. (Keep in mind, that i notified them of my availability at 0800 this morning and shift change starts at 7am.)
I walk through the door and voila, I have been assigned as the charge nurse. The regular charge nurses were out sick or with family issues. The problem is that this happens rather frequently on our unit. We are a small hospital but tend to stay very very busy. As a result, we feel the effects of any missing staff members.
i really don't want to do this very often and don't know why we don't have a different back-up plan. (well, i mean other than, the last one who gets there in the morning is stuck with charge. )
also, we aren't being compensated well for our forced participation in this particular assisgnment. I.E. we only receive a bit over $10 for a full day of insanity.
Does anyone have an idea how I might speak to my supervisors about my own personal discomfort with being the charge nurse?
Some of the other nurses are very upset and verbalize feelings of being used--i.e. they are not good enough as charge nurses except as a last resort.
thank you in advance.