Charge nurse with less than a year RN experience???!!

[RNpandoraRN]

Recently one of the nurses I work with began training to be charge on our 30-bed (very busy!) med/surg unit. But here's the kicker - while she's very pleasant to work with....it hasn't even been a year yet since she graduated from nursing school (not previously an LPN or related field; never worked in medicine before), and has only been off new grad nurse orientation for 6 months. She is the newest and least experienced of the nurses that work her shift. She only oriented once and is already charging on her own.

This just seems ridiculous to me. A nurse who hasn't even been a nurse for a year is not someone I'm going to for help.....she has had litte experience with IVs, foleys, NGs, she has NEVER seen/experienced a code. The charge nurse needs to be someone with experience and good critical thinking skills - something that often a new nurse has not yet mastered. I'm just appalled. Scared. And a little angry that management would think this is a good idea, especially when this particular unit already has an abundant amount of new nurses working it. It's like having the blind leading the blind.

Just needing to vent, or maybe get some replies on why this isn't such a bad idea!

[classicdame, MSN, EdD]

I know of hospitals with units employing many LVN's who will hire new grad RN's to charge.

Our policy is you have to be here one year minimum. I will also say my friend took a temporary charge nurse position after 18 mos as nurse. She ended up keeping it for a while, then took interim manager and is now a nursing director. She only worked 18 mos on the floor but EXCELS in management and most all her staff love working for her. So maybe leadership skills is a good thing.

[RNperdiem, RN]

My old job treated charge nurse duty like jury duty. You didn't say no unless you had a compelling reason.

There was a small core of long-term med/surg nurses with plans to stay. Then there was the revolving cast of new grads who would put in their year and move on.

I think the senior nurses were getting burned out always being in charge or precepting, so they put some of the burden on the newer nurses.

[RoyalNurse]

They did it to me: I had 1 month over a year of experience, but really didn't feel ready to be charge, I talked to my manager about this, and she said "No one ever feels ready."

We get "charge pay": $1.00 more per hour, it's really ridiculous for all the extra work you have to do: bed meetings, assignments, breaks, fighting with the nursing supervisor and bed placement, and a full patient load on top of it all. And I've seen 1 code in my career, I study ACLS every week, but seriously doubt I would know what to do.

We have a lot of "middle management" in my hospital who I see walking around and asking me questions about transfers in/out, ED admissions, I want to just say: "What's stopping you from you doing this job?" I mean, really? My decisions are often overrided by management anyway.

[Prettyladie]

well i say congratulations to her. im sure she can go to orientation and she will be fine. just because she hasnt been a nurse long doesnt mean she cant develop the skills that is necessary for the job. obviously someone didn't want the job and or she was who they wanted. why arent you being asked to become charge nurse. say something if you are that mad but i doubt you will.

[RainDreamer, BSN, RN]

I was put in that same situation at my first job as a nurse. I had only been off orientation for about 3 months and they wanted to start training me to be charge.

Yeah, I don't think so! Needless to say I left. I worked way too damn hard for my license to just throw it away.

[RainDreamer, BSN, RN]

just because she hasnt been a nurse long doesnt mean she cant develop the skills that is necessary for the job

Sure she can develop skills. But she doesn't have the experience under her belt that a charge nurse needs. Experience is a must have.

[Aneroo, LPN]

Bad idea.

I remember getting ticked at one of the recent hospitals I worked in. Nurse that started around the same time as I, only I had ER experience, she had neuro ICU experience. I'd done triage at the other hospital also. She'd get put in charge at night- a few months ER experience, never doing triage, didn't know the ESI triage scale, etc...

[Prettyladie]

so there has never been charge nurses who have done great with no experience?

[RainDreamer, BSN, RN]

so there has never been charge nurses who have done great with no experience?

I don't know, but I wouldn't want to work under a charge nurse with no experience to find out!

[Aneroo, LPN]

just because she hasnt been a nurse long doesnt mean she cant develop the skills that is necessary for the job.

The charge role is not the position to be getting experience. You need the experience PRIOR to taking on a charge position, and it isn't something you can simulate in a lab or learn in a classroom.

[Prettyladie]

haha good point. but i just feel like shes being attacked. and honestly what would you do if you were on the floor and they appointed a nurse with no experience would you quit, or what would you do. not being sarcastic, a serious question.

[RainDreamer, BSN, RN]

haha good point. but i just feel like shes being attacked. and honestly what would you do if you were on the floor and they appointed a nurse with no experience would you quit, or what would you do. not being sarcastic, a serious question.

That's tough. I would seriously think about going up the chain of command and/or looking for another job. If a hospital is willing to put a nurse with no experience in a role like charge nurse, then it's probably not somewhere you want to work anyway.