Charge nurse responsibilties of other RNs

[pebbles1977]

Hi guys,

I had an incident happen about a year ago, and still wonder if it will ever creep back up. There was a traveler RN on the unit where I was charge for the shift. She had a heavy assignment, and one of her pts wasn't doing too well. About 1330 she came to me and told me this lady was requiring qhr D50 injections bc her BG was so unstable. Taking her word, I called the sup (manager on vacation that day of course) to get her transferred to ICU (I figured if she was that bad off, she needed more intensive care). Said RN also stated she had been paging the MDs all day and their responsiveness was lacking due to a busy OR day. So I paged the intern first, no response, then the 3rd yr resident, who sent the intern up to the floor. I told her what I knew and she went to the OR to get the 3rd year's approval for the transfer.

I later came to find out that the travel RN had gotten an initial order for D50 for a BG under 50. But she continued to recheck and give D50 for readings for 50-90. She gave no OJ, no milk, nothing to that effect that would have been less drastic, not to mention she was at the hours after the initial order prescribing without a license (did not have orders to readminister). I found all this out after I had left for the day and passed on all the info I had to the evening shift charge. It was a very busy day and I had patients of my own, as well as everyone else's.

Even later, after she left, she wrote an official letter (after finding out the BON was investigating), stating that she had informed her charge nurse (stated my first and last names) of everything that was going on, and that I had not acted in an appropriate manner. Now, my manager showed me a copy of this letter, which I probably should not have seen. But that's besides the point I guess. I just couldn't believe she would lie like that, blatently!

So I suppose my point to this post is to find out if anyone else has experienced something like this, what did you do, and what should I have done differently?

Thanks!

[snowfreeze, BSN, RN]

Yes as charge nurse I have had a few try to blame me for things that happened during their care of a patient. I have also had a few try to blame me as supervisor as I also do that on weekends. Each nurse has the same letters after their name as mine. They are put in direct charge of that patient and should act as a patient advocate to their best ability. Telling the charge nurse or the supervisor does not relieve that nurse of the responsibility of proper treatment of that patient. It just adds another advocate for the patient in your response in how that patient should be treated. You utilized what that nurse gave you, she being of equal training as you.

[pricklypear]

I think too many people see the charge nurse role as being some kind of supervisory position. Depending on the institution, I really don't think that is what it is meant to be. I think a charge nurse should act as a resource when needed, but not as the "be all, end all." When a nurse is assigned a patient group, that nurse is ultimately responsible for their care, no matter what kind of advice they may receive from coworkers. Sounds like that nurse was just an idiot, got caught being an idiot, and saw a chance to blame it on you. It doesn't sound like something that could come back to you, you weren't in primary care of the patient - she was. In what manner did she expect you to act? Take over care of the patient, and fix everything for her?