charge nurse duties?

[shannonRN]

i was wondering how different med-surg floors utilized charge nurses. if you could share some of the job descriptions and responsibilities, patient load....please mention which shift you are explaining the duties for. on my floor day charge usually takes no patients or a couple that are to be discharged that day, evening charge can take anywhere from the same number of patients as non charge to 1-2 less, midnight charges usually has a full load. some of our charge nurse responsibilities include placing patients when admitting calls, taping report for the whole shift, rounding with the docs.....our floor also does not have a charge nurse job description. do any of your hospitals? and if so could you share? :)

[Lisah]

I am the charge nurse of a 30 bed medical/surgical/ palliative care unit. We presently have a charge nurse on days only,7-3. our evening in charge is on maternity leave, when she returns we will be rotating the shifts. on days I make rounds with the doctors when they permit it, the doctor's orders are all done manually, the unit clerk does the orders preferably with the charge nurse. The charge nurse does the assignments, deals with families, does most of the discharges with patients. I work with admitting and assign beds to new admissions. As the charge nurse I am the contact person for most all departments. I am the resource nurse for the staff on the floor. We have 3 RN's and 3 LPN's for 30 patients, we have this staffing until 7pm, and then we reduce to 2 RN's and 3 LPN's till 11pm then it is 2 RN's and 2LPN's. Once I leave at 3pm, one of the floor nurses takes the incharge role. Their responsibilities are basically only in an ememrgency they need to set the appropriate chains in motion. At present the charge nurse has no patient assignment, though when there is a sick call that we can't replace I end up taking a full team and the unit manager comes to the desk and takes on my role, it is a nice break for a change, and the extra 40 cents isn't a big loss. As charge nurse I find I spend half of my day on the phone. We did a workload management assessment and they did not believe the amount of time on the phone. I tracked the calls we fielded in a 7am-11pm shift and we fielded over 130 calls. Imagine for 30 patients. The best advantage is that I love my job. I enjoy the interactions with the doctors and I love being a resource to the nurses.

[kmlunar]

Ok I feel better now! I am a charge nurse on M/S pm's 12 hrs. I usually have one other RN an LPN and 2 CNA's and a ward clerk until midnight on week days I am the wrd clerk on week-ends. I am responsible for assignments, taking off orders and new admits. I have to do all the LPN's IV push meds and hang the blood. I am responsible for all the staff under me on my shift and many times that includes pool staff that is being floated to my floor from another area. I deal with all patient, family and staff and staff problems. I do all the hard IV sticks and procedures that the LPN's can't do. I also take a full pt load depending on the census which usually means I have anywhere from 2-6. Still sounds better than what some of you are doing! Thanks for putting things in perspective!

[kmlunar]

My unit has 28 beds and 2 lock ups

[Genista, BSN, RN]

I used to work on a med/tele floor where the dayshift charge took no patients, and could REALLY help the staff by doing admits, taking off orders, rustling up equipment, coordinating procedures, calling docs, starting IVs, and general troubleshooting. Plus, you did the usual lead nurse stuff like bed control, & making sure rooms get cleaned for new admits, and making sure the nurses get breaks. I actually kind of liked it, though it was crazy at the nurses station. It felt like you made a difference- and the staff nurses appreciated all the little things the lead did to make things run smooth. Of course, you also had a lead to lead report & rounded on the entire floor.

Now I'm working in another area, where the lead gets a full load (maybe one less patient to start with), and no unit secretary. So, the lead does order entry & also helps note a bulk of orders left in the rack. You do bed control, and lead to lead report. Although the lead report is usually VERY different than my last position. Now I have NO TIME to know the details, and frankly, my hands are full with my own assignment of 5-6 patients (one nurse aid for the entire floor). I don't have time to round the floor- I have to trust that the primary RNs are doing their job.

I now greatly dislike doing lead. But I have to do it, because it's part of the job. It only pays $1/hr more, and honestly, it's not worth it. It's a whole lot of extra work for pennies. And you aren't really "leading" at all.