Charge Nurses: What sort of nurses working under you do you like/dont like?

Ruby Vee, BSN · Dec 25, 2007

i was wondering if, for example, asking lots of questions (like i sometimes do) is bothersome?
i also noticed that charge nurses get irritated when someone challenges an assignment...
is there anything you particularily do and don't like? do you like for the nurses to check in with you regarding the status of patients?

i like to work with nurses who think about how to solve their own problems before they bring them to me. if you can't come up with something ok, but please at least think about it first.

i like to work with nurses who help each other out.

i like to work with nurses who help me out when i need it. if we're full and the surgeon has just accepted a train wreck from another facility and i need someone to transfer their patient out in a big fat hurry so that we can accomodate the train wreck, i'm grateful for all four of those nurses who helped transfer out the only transferrable patient even though it wasn't their patient (the nurse whose patient it was was in ct with her other patient) and then helped set up the room for the trainwreck and tag teamed the admission. i like flexible, helpful nurses.

i don't like nurses who complain incessently, fight with other nurses or other departments or try to duck out of work.

marygirl · Dec 25, 2007

As a resource "float" nurse, I rarely challenge assignments. There is a mentality that I can take a heavier team or go over assigned limits due to my position and I may have more general knowledge than alot of the floor nurses especially if they have never left their floor. I also don't like to complain, however, one day on the renal floor, after I received my reports, I counted and my 5 patients with no aid were all diabetic, 3 had C-dif diarrhea, 2 had prior strokes and needed max assist and/or turning and feeding. One was a total care including smashing pills into applesauce with an overbearing husband demanding that the nurse feed his wife for a full hour each meal. When I complained that I couldn't take this assignment without an aid, I was informed that there was no recourse because the floor had no aids that day. I then informed the charge nurse that I would call my supervisor and ask her to come and evaluate the situation. Suddenly a little switch was made and the total care with the overbearing husband was placed on the LPN team. The RN/LPN team was very mad at me and none of the nurses spoke to me the rest of the day if they didn't have to. I couldn't possibly safely care for that group of patients by myself, though, and I stand behind my decision to speak up for the well being of my patients.

On the other hand, I often get the frequent fliers who are PITA's and I never complain about those assignments, I know that the native staff needs a break from them.

Ahhphoey · Dec 26, 2007

When I am in charge, the most annoying people are those that are lazy and complain a lot. Like someone else said, it brings down everyone's morale. Fortunately, I have worked with a great team at all places I've done charge and never really had a problem.

I don't see a problem with questioning an assignment though and I'm speaking from both a staff nurse and charge nurse point of view. I started at a new job in August and have done no charge duty there, but I can see that sometimes those charge nurses don't put any thought into an assignment. For instance, I work the 3-11 shift and one day I came in to find myself relieving a day nurse of two patients, one with a new trach, but off the vent, awake and communicating, but very time consuming due to suctioning, incontinence, frequent turning and drsg changes. The other patient had been extubated the day before, but was very lethargic, did not communicate, on Levophed, oozing blood from various little skin tears or abrasions (she had an extremely high INR), needing FFP and I had to d/c a central line on her as well as a PICC (yeah she had both) and send tips for cultures and because of her INR, would be holding pressure for no less than 10 minutes each site. Meanwhile she's febrile, and now she starting to pee blood in her foley and she too was a total care needing frequent oral suctioning, turning, and incontinence care. All of this at 3 pm when I walk in the door, but the charge nurse wanted to give me a third patient from the floor being transferred in for seizures. Mind you, two other nurses were just waiting for transfer orders from their very stable patients and were sitting around. I questioned this, but she said we just had to do what we had to do. I also want to mention she had no patients. What saved me was one of the nurses scheduled to leave at 3 volunteered to stay until 7 and took the transfer pt. That transfer patient ended up immediately intubated and orders for stat CT of the head, EEG, phenobarb, etc. I think the charge tried to assign me this patient because I was the first person she saw when she got the call. Several other nurses were surprised to find out she wanted to give me that patient with the assignment i already had. Now I think that was a legitimate questioning of the assignment and I will question my assignment any time it does not look fair or seems dangerous.