How long before you were a charge nurse?

Nurses General Nursing

Published

On our unit, it's tough to figure out how they select charge nurses. One nurse comes in w/ 2 years of experience at a doc's office, and she is selected as a charge nurse. She's not the greatest nurse, but has lots of non-medical management experience. Ok. Whatever. Then another nurse comes in w/ about 5 years of experience and they are grooming her now for the role. I just wonder how many years it takes before they start to consider you for the role after you have come into the unit as a new nurse.

Specializes in LDRP.

from what i've seen, its not just years of experience but other things as well. how well do you handle stress/pressure/busy situations? How good of a mediator are you likely to be? Will you be fair making assignments? how's your leadership abilities, ability to get along with all the nurses, doctors, etc? your organization? etc

of course, at some places i'm sure its who's butt you kiss and how hard, but hopefully thats the minority :)

I had about 6 months experience before being charge nurse for a 45 bed floor.

Being charge nurse at my old job was not treated as any great promotion. It was treated more like jury duty where you are resigned when your turn comes.

Specializes in onc, M/S, hospice, nursing informatics.

I had about a year's experience when I went to charge class, and I didn't get any orientation (as compared to now when some people get three shifts). Unfortunately, in the last several years, I have found that charge nurses are recruited when the need arises. You may not be considered a good candidate and you may be the world's worst nurse (charge or otherwise) as far as organization and getting the job done, but if they are short and you are available... BAM! You are thrown into the position, ready or not. This has caused many a problem in recent days, with orders being missed, admission assessments not done, etc. But, I'm not the manager, and I finally got out of that unit and into the float pool. You can only gripe so much before you realize that all of your concerns are falling on deaf ears.

:hdvwl:

Sorry, didn't mean to hop on my soapbox.

I was at my job (hired as a new grad) for a year and four months before being made charge. It's a rite of passage, sort of like RNperdiem said, something I accepted with resignation. It pays $0.75 more an hour, which we all laugh at.

We are forced to orient to charge after being there one year. It pays nothing extra. On weekends or nights, you must also take a full patient load while "charging". Most people hate it. It's a lot of extra work and grief for absolutely nothing.

We are forced to orient to charge after being there one year. It pays nothing extra. On \weekends or nights, you must also take a full patient load while "charging". Most people hate it. It's a lot of extra work and grief for absolutely nothing.

This is how our floor does it too. It's a pain in the butt. But our manager doesn't wait a certain amount of time before orienting to charge. Some nurses have been on the floor for 5-6 years and have never been in charge and some are new grads that are in charge after 6 months. I think a lot of it has to do with how you handle other situations. There are a few nurses who are constantly frazzled and are always there 1-2 hours after their shift "catching up" and they're not allowed to be in charge.

Specializes in L&D and OB-GYN office.

I was made one of the charge nurses after working 1 year (after graduating) in L&D. I did not get any extra pay, and it was "on the job training". Of course, being such a large unit, it was a shared position. I did not have to do it every shift I worked. I would take my own patients, too, but only until the other nurses had their fill. I didn't love being the charge nurse, but it was good experience and apparently I was good at it because I was scheduled to do it a lot.

Specializes in Hospice, corrections, psychiatry, rehab, LTC.

I was hired into a charge position fresh out of school. It was a new hospital mental health unit (they couldn't even show me my unit during the interview, because it was still a hard hat area). I gather that there was little interest from among the regular hospital staff. Frankly I wasn't ready, but I survived it. I literally opened my unit, taking in the first admission we ever got. There was a psych tech and me. I had never put a chart together or taken a doctor's order over the phone, and we got three admissions in the first 45 minutes we were open. I got my license and a month later I had people looking to me for direction. It was, shall we say, an experience. I look back on that time now and it almost doesn't seem real.

Specializes in Geriatrics.

My first job out of nursing school was charge nurse for 60 bed skilled nursing floor. Stayed for about a year and was offered a better job, same title though of charge nurse for larger skilled nursing floor. I'm an LPN and all of the charge nurses where i worked were LPNs, we had RNs that were supervisors for all the floors.

On our unit, it's tough to figure out how they select charge nurses. One nurse comes in w/ 2 years of experience at a doc's office, and she is selected as a charge nurse. She's not the greatest nurse, but has lots of non-medical management experience. Ok. Whatever. Then another nurse comes in w/ about 5 years of experience and they are grooming her now for the role. I just wonder how many years it takes before they start to consider you for the role after you have come into the unit as a new nurse.

I was a nurse of about 9 months when I became a night Charge nurse. I had over 2 years on the same floor in a different capacity prior to becoming a nurse and showed leadership ability.

otessa

Specializes in Hospital, med-surg, hospice.

Every RN does charge duty by rotation, no extra money; usually you will get charge duty with a staff person during orientation, then you are on your own with a pt. assignment too.

+ Add a Comment