What is the role of charge nurse

MariaAnderson · Apr 2, 2011

Hospital charge nurses are responsible for the management and operations of a department or hospital unit. They perform basic nursing assignments and act as a manager by completing various administrative tasks. Hospital charge nurses begin their careers as Licensed Practical Nurses or Registered Nurses and obtain this position after several years of experience.

Caffeine_IV · Apr 2, 2011

As night shift charge on a medical floor, I have a full patient load and also do:

bed assignment

staffing assignment

handle complaints- patient, family or staff related

help with difficult patients and tasks

resource for staff - which means they call me about everything

All that for an extra 90cent/hr.

APRN., DNP, RN, APRN, NP · Apr 2, 2011

I take charge in the ICU. I am resource for the RN's who need help repositioning their patients, general "go"pher since nurse's are usually too busy to leave the unit, make staff assignments, figure out and record acuities, lunch relief, shift audits, family liason, back-up trouble shooter/problem solver for less experienced RN's as well as what-they-think is a walking nursing encyclopedia (LOL.....sooooooo not!!), call light answerer when the occasion arises, heat shield between begrumpled doc's and my nursing staff, Rapid Response Team leader facility-wide, Cheerleader, Social services, grief councilor for patient's family AND staff, IV alarm fixer, vent alarm responder, putter-on-the-bedpanner, and taker-off-the-bedpanner, hard-IV-start queen, coffee-maker, bed-assignment lady, and on and on.

meandragonbrett · Apr 2, 2011

My role as a ICU Charge?

We take no patients. We are responsible for making assignments for the next shift, coordinating flow of patients in and out of the ICU. Ensuring that staff nurses get their lunch break. Ensuring that the techs are doing their assigned duties for the shift (Restocking, bathing, transporting, etc. and that they've not gone missing). Assisting with admissions. Attend bed meetings to plan for the 12 hour shift. Watch the OR board and ER Board for possible admits and be ready for them. Respond to codes on the floor and transport them back to the unit. Deal with staffing, patient issues, family issues, and nurse issues. very busy!

eyeball · Apr 2, 2011

We have good charge nurses and poor ones. The good ones seem to exhibit a true desire to make the floor run well during that particular shift. They are responsive to all questions and help with the solutions. They have the back of all of their nurses and we know who they are. The poor ones do anything from gossiping and hanging with their buds to doing committee work so they can advance up the clinical ladder that has nothing to do with the business of the day. When they do show up at my station it is usually to fuss about something: "we have only one secretary today so to need to put in your own orders." "Drinks aren't allowed in the pt care areas."

When I come on shift and pick up my assignment the first thing I do is look at three things on my assignment sheet: How many patients do I have, who's my aid, and who's charge...in three seconds I am either feeling relief and gratefulness or my stomach tightens cause I already know it's gonna be a rough day.

canesdukegirl, BSN, RN · Apr 2, 2011

Since I work in the OR, charge responsibilities are very different. I have to make assignments for 30+ ORs, change assignments when we have call outs, coordinate with the Medical Director and the anesthesiologist running the board with me, constantly put out fires (pt does not have a consent, so I must contact the attg and the resident to get the consent that should have been completed LONG before taking the pt to the holding area), referee between surgical techs and nurses who are not getting along in their room, juggle add-on cases, which entails posting the case, alerting the staff about the case, calling central sterile to get the case cart ready, calling the floor nurse to get the pt ready, calling the resident and the attending when I have a time frame for them to do their case allthewhile getting caught in the middle when surgeons and anesthesiologists decide that ******* contests are more important than getting the pt into surgery.

Then I must coordinate lunch reliefs for 60 people, keep in mind the staff that must be relieved in the middle of the day because their manager gave them permission to leave early, but did not tell me about it-leaving me scrambling to cover the rest of their shift. While all of that is going on, I have to constantly keep in mind that a red trauma can come through at any minute, and I need to think about which room I can open should an emergency come in.

Of course, I have to keep the surgical schedule moving. This means that I have to constantly monitor the rooms to see what progress they are making, if a case is taking longer than it should, and then re-planning where the following cases will go...which means another round of calls to everyone involved in the following cases. I must alert the anesthesia coordinator as to any proposed changes that I am thinking about, and then listen to her while she tells me that my proposed changes are dumb. When I say, "OK, then why don't you tell me what you want me to do?", her response is to just walk away while muttering "whatever". Nice to be in charge, huh?

Oh, and the phone CONSTANTLY rings.

I have been so busy at the charge desk that I realize at 1845 that I haven't gone to the bathroom for 12 hours. It is super busy all the time, and I know that when staff come up to the desk and want to chat, they think I am being a jackwagon because I can't engage in a conversation. I hate that.

Sometimes people HATE their assignment and will argue with me for 15 minutes, delaying relief for the staff in the room that has worked their butts off all day. Then guess who gets blamed for not sending relief in on time? You betcha, the charge nurse.

It is very difficult to be in charge on a busy unit. I can't believe I haven't totally lost my mind yet. Thankfully I have a good husband who understands my challenges, and has dinner and a big hug ready for me when I come home!