Frustrated with management

I hear you, definetely. Within the past 12 yrs of nsg. I have had my share of charge. And you are right there really is no incentive to charge especially if you carry a full pt. load yourself. If we do charge we get an extra $1/hr. Yipee! I am now per-diem so I don't have to worry about charge.

Some people love charge and other hospitals and units have strictly a charge nurse who is in charge of the floor without a pt. assignment but it sure is different if you have your own load.

Have you talked to your manager? What is it like on the other units in your hospital?

Maybe you could try to update your resume and submit it to a few places just to see what happens.

Try not to get too disgusted, that will just get you down. Hang in there.

It just seems that if we are in such demand, that we should be treated better as employees. I work at a summer camp and although the work is hard, they treat me SO nice. Because they know they need me in order to run this camp. I think hospitals need to adopt some of this philosphy.

Gosh, reading these responses, sounds like the one I hvae been thinking of writing. I work on a busy Med/Sug Unit floor on night shift, and we don't usually have a CNA 3 of the 7 days of the week. It is difficult for these patients to receive the proper care, post-op as they should. Sometimes I feel I've short-changed my patients. Management doesn't seem to care. It's the patients and the NURSES who suffer!

At the facilities in my area,charge nurse gets nothing as incentive. It depends on how many staff members are there as to who gets charge. Two RN'S: one is charge,one does all IV meds. Only one RN: charge plus all IV meds. No extra pay. Just the lovely title and extra grief.

Wow it sounds like your job is eating you up. Are you going to look for a job elsewhere? You are an experienced nurse. Maybe other hospitals will accept you into their training program where you can go into the specialty that you like. If you have to relocate they can help you with that too and to get your license in another state. You could go anywhere and do anything. Keep us updated.

This was how it was 20 years ago on the M/S floor as well ( well sometimes on night shift we had 10 to 12 patients back then, but all the patients weren't as sick as they all are now days). We never stopped, never got breaks, and still felt like we didn't give the best care we should have, and always got out late. But my point is, it won't change as evidenced by history.

I reccomend trying ICU. It is a whole different level of stress and a whole different kind of busy. Sometimes you still don't get breaks, and get out late, but at least you get to give better care to your patients. It was the best thing I ever did. I don't think I would still be in nursing if I had stuck with floor nursing.

Do I know you Kdm? It sounds as if you are at the place that I just left. Last year when I first started, one of the RNs that precepted me told me right off the bat, "Just say NO" and I was like "to what?" and she said Charge Nurse!! When they charge, they get a whopping 2 bucks extra plus all the above mentioned HAs that go along with it. Do what ever you can to get out of there and like someone else suggested, send out your resume b/c experience vs new grad does work in your favor, especially being from a M/S floor. I really thought that I would have a hard time finding a position about a month ago with all the new grad nurses (I haven't even had my license a year yet but work on M/S) flooding the market but it didn't take anytime at all to find a new hospital. Plus, with your experience, you can go PRN (if you don't need the insurance) and earn some really good wages.

Good luck on finding a different hospital or unit.