MANAGERS: do you have a permanent charge nurse or assistant nurse manager?

I've worked in 5 neonatal ICUs, and 3 of them had either permanent charge nurses or assistant nurse managers on the off shifts.

My first management position was as an ANM of a Level II NICU. My responsibilities included charge of 3-11 shift, orientation of new staff, presentation of mandatory inservices, maintaining records of mandatory certifications (BLS, NRP), scheduling, employee evals, etc. I worked mostly M-F, with only 1 weekend in 6, as we had Baylor staff. Looking back, it sounds like a cushy job

Polly,
I recently accepted a position in a PICU which has undergone several major stressors (we live in New Orleans). Prior to last year there was an assistant manager which allowed for more innovative nursing concepts to be implemented. Right now I am in the process of observing the 20 (of a total of 60) nurses which have been trained to the charge position. I am observing to determine which (if any) are ready to accept a permanent charge role or possibly even assistant manager.
I hope to eventually institute a permanent charge role, however, right now I am still searching for individual strengths.
My opioion is that a permanent charge role would be the more functional role. My ideal is to have 6 permanent charge nurses (three for each 12 hour shift). Because of the stressfull nature of the job and the need to keep up one's skills they would ideally rotate 1-2 weeks on and off. I will keep you posted as to how my "experiment" goes.
Kidsrme

Where do you get your information to base when and how a person is ready for the charge nurse position? I am currently writing a paper on such. I was out of nursing school X 2 months and placed in a charge nurse position. I felt that I was no way ready for such a position let alone the responsibility but my nurse manager felt differently. I have been a nurse for 1 1/2 years now. I felt that there should have been training for the position. So now that I am back in school, I want to research this. Can you provide me with info and/or websites?