fill-in charge nurse with the "big head"

[chenoaspirit, ASN, RN]

There is this one nurse I work with who is great to work with side-by-side. But when a charge nurse calls in and she is "fill-in charge" for the night, she is a nightmare. She bullys and acts like she is a know-it-all. She tries to tell us what and how to do our jobs. She fires orders like a shotgun and its literally a joke. She hasnt been a nurse for long, which isnt a bad thing, but she has MUCH to learn and tries to pretend like she has been a nurse for years. She even tries to tell the doctors what to do! But the nurse coordinators really think she is the bomb, because she "looks good" in the role when they are around. It drives us all insane and makes our night a literal nightmare! Being "charge" for the night really makes her feel like queenie. Anyone else work with someone like that?

[DutchgirlRN, ASN, RN]

Years ago I got literally "thrown into the charge chair", the charge nurse had to leave for a family emergency and it was "here, sit down do charge". I survived and never managed to get off the charge rotation. At the time we had a couple of nurses who would do charge just every now and then and they were like you're explaining...."Large and in charge", it drove us all crazy. We all stayed away from the desk as much as possible. Out of sight out of mind.

Eventually they both transferred to ICU and years later are still both there. (I think there's a hidden message there).

[RN BSN 2009]

Maybe it's something that comes with the added stress... people react to stress differently. Maybe a quiet talk may help ?

[JBudd, MSN]

It comes (or did for me) of being so aware that all of a sudden everything is YOUR responsiblity! Lots of scary stories about the charge nurse being not only responsible for her own work but yours too. "Why did you make that assignment? Didn't you make sure that she got her work done? Don't you know you are supposed to know details about every single patient here?" It was freaky at first. Evnetually, got used to trusting my coworkers to do their jobs and let me know what it is I need to know.

It also took my boss taking me aside and gently letting me know I didn't have to push that much, we really do have competent staff who are able to do their jobs quite well, thank you very much.

Have you tried talking to her off the record, over lunch or something? Don't know if you have a good enough relationship for that, but if not, let your boss know about it. Bring it up as "I have a problem with this situation", so as not to be pointing fingers. Good luck!