ER CHARGE NURSE

[daniehur]

How does one become a Emergency Department Charge Nurse after getting a BSN and graduating and getting certified?

What are the steps after graduation and how many years of experience in the ER do you need?

Is it also a part time job or full time job?

[bgxyrnf, MSN, RN]

There's no one answer, of course, and it depends greatly on the size and structure of the department.

Generally speaking, though, you need several years of experience with progressively increasing non-clinical responsibilities (chairing committees, precepting, etc). You need to have an expert's knowledge of just about anything that could roll in to the department because you are always the last line of support and reference. You need to have a solid knowledge of the physician structure and the individual docs so that you can effectively manage and mediate the relationship between the docs and your nurses.

[Nalon1 RN/EMT-P, BSN, RN]

Depends on the facility.

BSN is not a requirement to be a charge everywhere I have worked.

Some places will make you charge just a few months after starting to work. Some make you wait 2 years.

Some facilities it is a full time position, some it is not. Some pay extra for it, some do not.

Some charge nurses care for patients, some do not.

[HiddencatBSN, BSN]

Most places I've worked at have an internal training process to be a charge RN. You usually need to be highly competent and then triage trained, have built up expertise in triage, and then express interest and be accepted to be precepted in to the role. Some places will have the role as a dedicated role and others will have a bank of charge nurses that rotate between being a charge nurse and taking care assignments.

Why do you want to be an ED charge nurse?

[nightbrightener]

Like other posters have said, it generally is a final step in progression in experience within the ER in most places. Generally start as floor nurse, then triage and trauma, then precept, then charge. Some departments do seem to just throw anyone in the role but at my current job, it is 2 charge nurses day and evening, one for incoming, one for outgoing. Suggested by management or staff, approved by both, then trained. It does tend to be a springboard towards management if you want it, but basically just proves your managers and your coworkers have faith you can handle things on the floor, come what may.

It also doesn't stop you from having to do direct patient care, it just means you get to assist with the train wrecks, combative patients, and hard IV sticks in addition to assisting in service recovery, staffing, trauma's ect. The best thing is the sense of accomplishment if it goes well or as well as it could have, bad thing is no real increase in pay, increased responsibilities and often you are considered responsible for things you had no control over. I like it, many hate it. Basically everyone who succeeds in the position NEVER loses their cool, has on point clinical skills and great soft skills, and is comfortable being both moral support and drill sergeant as the need demands.

[LifelongNursing, MSN, RN, APRN, NP]

If you strive to be a charge nurse, you will one day. There is no specific combination of experience that will ultimately guarantee you to be a charge nurse. I'll say, from being a nursing supervisor myself and loving to teach new nurses, eagerness will go a long way. The eagerness to learn, keep patient's safe, asking questions that demonstrate critical thinking and "just doing it" certainly will build your experience enough to the point of you being confident to being a charge nurse in an emergency department.

Often being a charge nurse is not necessarily knowing what to do with the patients, it is knowing what to do with the staff. For example, knowing the strengths, weaknesses, and personalities of each staff member and refining your charge nurse abilities to match those as well as being open to other ideas other than your own.

With that said, I think it is a great idea to pursue being a charge nurse, especially in the emergency department and experience and certification will go along way, however, so does skills, knowledge, personality, and your ability to stay calm be just as important.

[Racer15, BSN, RN]

In my ER? These are the requirements: Have you been a nurse for at least a year? Are you a glutton for punishment? Is the $1 an hour incentive a fair price for your sanity? Do you enjoy dealing with angry drug seekers that demand to speak to the charge nurse? Do you love getting harassed by lazy staff members to get an EA? Do you enjoy getting ******* at by providers AND staff nurses? Then a fabulous job as charge nurse in the ED is the job for you!