I'm About To Walk!

The unit charge nurse was VERY unprofessional.

Part of maintaining your professional composure is to return to work and do a quality job, treating that idiot as a fellow professional, even though she is a turd. But make an official complaint to your NM, send it up the chain of command. Your refusal to gossip or go off on her in the same manner as she did will look incredibly professional, and you'll get lots of respect from the coworkers that matter.

I agree that the nurse manager needs to know what happened. I would also inform your agency in case you do end up terminating your contract early. It might not look favorably on you if you just abruptly end your contract without communicating the string of events that led you there.

I would go to your agency first and let them know of the intolerable conditions and then I would most certainly tell the unit manager.

hope things are looking up

That's awful to be treated like that!
I would both make the NM aware of the situation (you might even get an apology out of that, especially if they are that desparate for staff) and let your agency know what is going on. If things don't improve immediately after speaking with the NM, others might get the bright idea to make you the scape goat for everything that goes wrong. Protect your license! If things don't improve, you would certainly not be the first person to end their contract early. By letting your agency know there is trouble early, you are more likely to stay in good standing with them for future assignments than if you just walk and tell them about it after the fact.
Good luck! Hope things improve for you!

One nurse to 14 critical patient? Are you kidding? And the hospital probably wonders why 13 nurses and aides have quit during the last 6 weeks. That hospital should FIRE that nurse who was so unprofessional as to yell at you infront of patients, visitors, and fellow employees. I would not stand for it. If I were in your shoes, I would file a formal complait with the hospital, send notice through the entire chain of command of that hospital, not just with one person (in case the one person doesn't address the issue.) Then, I would then notify your agency of all this. Then I would tell that nurse to get her head out of her ass, and then walk off the job. Frankly, I wouldn't even work 1 more day at a place where my nursing license (ok, I don't even have one of those yet) was in jeoprody. I'm sure you have worked way too hard to get to where you are now, and then lose everything because of a hospital that has unsafe policies. The consequenses of you quitting, having the hospital not like you anymore, possibly not going on any more assignments with that company, and maybe even having to pay back some money to the agency...all that is 1000 times better than losing your license. There are too many agaencies and hospitals that would love to have you work for them. Patient safety and your license should be more important to you than 1 single job. I would not want to work there another day.

How about the accrediting agency? I'm sure you can make an anonymous phone call regarding the unsafe conditions. I'm sure they would like to hear about it.