Charge Nurse

[nursestudent15]

Hello Everyone,

I want to say thank you to all of you who share your experiences on this site. I have been in nursing school for almost 2 years and I frequently check in here for tips and support.

My question is for those of you who have been in leadership positions, how much bedside experience did you have before you were assigned as a charge nurse? I am about to graduate from and ADN program. I have noticed several people in the charge position or taking students that are relatively new nurses. What is the standard where you work?

Thank you!

[DeeAngel]

Last place I worked all the day charge nurses on a super busy med surge floor (48 beds) all had less than one year nursing experience and new grads would be placed in charge positions within a few months if they seemed capable.

[Nature_walker, ASN, BSN, RN]

My unit is after 6 months to a year.

[Apples&Oranges]

I got pulled off orientation 2 weeks early at my last job. When I walked in for my first shift on my own, I was greeted with, "Surprise, you're in charge!"

I didn't even know all of the door codes yet. No paperwork got done that night, we had a rapid response and I kept calling the emergency number from my former facility, the house supervisor yelled at me when I hadn't made assignments at 5am and I broke down in tears. You should have seen me trying to test the defibrillator - I think I woke half the damn hospital!

My director and I had a long talk the next day...

[RNrhythm, BSN, RN]

When I worked at a chronically understaffed LTAC, an actual acute care hospital, I would get stuck with Charge even though I had less than a year's experience. This was because we were short staffed and all the other RNs were registry, travelers, or had some sort of performance problem.

[NurseKatie08, MSN]

My first job was a subacute rehab where there was not a formal charge RN role, but after a while I was the most experienced on my shift that people looked at me as an unofficial charge & I was the default decision maker when the house supervisor was not working that night. Now I am on a med/surg unit with no hard and fast rule about how much experience you should have. We have a somewhat "permanent charge role" (three nurses on days & three on nights) who always do charge when they work (and have other duties like assisting with scheduling for the unit and so forth). I chose not to apply for that role when it came out, but I have been doing charge for about 2 years. Got thrown in to it one night when none of our typical charge RNs were on and I was felt to be the most appropriate choice out of those of us to choose from. I didn't feel super stressed because I had been requesting to try charge for about a year at that point so I was prepared. In general I prefer to work the floor because I enjoy the patient interaction (we have an assignment free charge...or rarely 1-2 patients at night) and I have a background in education. Because I have nearly nine years of experience and many nurses on my shift have 0-2 years of experience, I feel I am a good choice to be on the floor as I can take heavier patients without requiring as much support as a newer nurse might.

[knurse10]

On my unit, it's more like who is willing to be charge? Everyone hates it. We have no guarantees on patient ratios. We do get a differential, but I'm not sure the stress is worth it.

[QuarterLife88, MSN, RN, NP]

On my unit it's usually around 6-8 months, mostly out of necessity, and this is an occurrence on night shift. Day shift is full of experienced nurses so who's ever in charge will have a couple of years under their belt already. I work in a hospital on a med-surg unit. Don't expect prior training in order to be charge either.