Charge Nurse... 1 month out of orientation?

[CandyGyrl]

Anyone experience this? During the last week of my orientation I spent the last week orienting to charge nurse. I am now being told that in fact, I will be in charge soon. Although I have objected and asked for more time to adjust to being on my own, I'm coming up on my 1 month anniversary and its happening again. SO I will soon have to step up to the challenge sooner than I've anticipated. I know its not that big of a deal its just that I feel that I should be able to become comfortable as a brand new RN handling day to day nursing experiences without being bombarded with the expectation of being a clinical resource, night clerk and deal with staffing and admission issues while managing 5 patients all at the same time until I've been an RN for a MINIMUM of 6 months . Is this fair? Or am I being unreasonable?

[Valerie Salva, BSN, RN]

That's absolutely nuts! I also had 12 weeks of orientation and have been at my position for 7 mos and I am still not ready to be charge nurse! And I am sure that you have wisened up to the fact that hiring 12 new nurses means ur floor has a high turnover rate. If your not being heard its time to move up the chain of command because it's just not safe. And it's ur license on the line!

I agree!