Permanent Charge Nurses

[ReadyforChange]

I would like opinions on the pro's and con's of having permanent charge nurses, as opposed to rotating the charge nurse position.

Do permanent charge nurses lose their bedside skills?

Do nurses who used to be a rotating charge nurse but were not selected as the permanent charge nurse have lower morale?

Is "permanent charge nurse" an administrative position in your hospital? That is, are you paid out of an administrative budget or a unit nursing budget? Do you do staff evaluations? Are you directly responsible for the actions of the RN's working on your unit?

Do you have a job description for permanent charge nurse that you can share?

Thanks!

[SillyStudent, ASN, RN]

Our permanent charge nurses seem to be really busy providing patient care because the nurses are so busy. I can't imagine they would have time to lose their skills.

[loriangel14, RN]

Our charge spends as much time on the floor as we do. Her skills are top notch.

[SummerGarden, BSN, MSN, RN]

I'm a nursing student but I work in a hospital. On several floors I have encountered Charge Nurses (even the "permanent" ones) working bedside with patients daily. So I imagine that the above posters are correct. GL!

[MikeyJ, RN]

The charge nurses on our pediatrics floor can take up to 4 patients if need be. They typically only have 2 patients (usually the lowest acuity) but our charge nurses are BUSY. And if another nurse gets behind on something, the charge nurse on our unit is always there to help out.

Furthermore, the charge nurses in our hospital usually have at least 5+ years of experience of floor nursing.

[madwife2002, BSN, RN]

Our charge nurses wouldn't have a clue how to nurse on our floor. They have all been away from bedside nursing for far too long, I would be stressed if they were my back up, because I would not feel they are experienced enough now.

[MikeyJ, RN]

Our charge nurses wouldn't have a clue how to nurse on our floor. They have all been away from bedside nursing for far too long, I would be stressed if they were my back up, because I would not feel they are experienced enough now.

The charge nurses at your hospital are not required to take any patients??

I've always found that odd that some hospitals don't allow their charge nurses to take patients. Unless it is a very busy floor (a lot of coordinating for many admits, transfers, and discharges), I don't see why a charge nurse can't take 1 or 2 low acuity patients. They typically are not THAT busy... from what I have seen anyway.

[bcyogi]

I work as a Nurse Apprentice on a Med/Surg/Tele floor. We have up to 45-50 beds in our unit (depending if cardiac is using one of our halls for overflow). Our charge nurses never take patients of their own. There is too much going on all day long for them to have patients.

The 2 that I have worked with regularly are very competent in their skills and always ready to jump in and start an IV, help discharge a patient, or whatever they can do to help out.

I am not an RN yet, so I may view things differently once I am in the "real world" of nursing, but I can't imagine our charge nurses having patients. I have seen a variety of different hospitals and units through my clinical rotations, and EVERY place seems to do it different!

[meandragonbrett]

The charge nurses at your hospital are not required to take any patients??

I've always found that odd that some hospitals don't allow their charge nurses to take patients. Unless it is a very busy floor (a lot of coordinating for many admits, transfers, and discharges), I don't see why a charge nurse can't take 1 or 2 low acuity patients. They typically are not THAT busy... from what I have seen anyway.

Our charges nurses don't take patient loads on a regular basis. In ICU, there is so much movement and things change so rapidly that there's no way the charge can manage their own patient load as well as try to fix staffing, attend codes, make assignments, help people stay caught up, transport to CT, etc.

[gt4everpn, BSN, RN]

i work in ltc and each floor has a regular charge nurse who are all lpns some rns, i can only be charge when they are off for the day or when i become the rn! i remember one charge nurse tell me that she hasnt given out medications in all long time! huh??? also sometimes even if you are an lpn just like they are they still think they're better than you because they're the ''charge'', it doesnt matter though, cuz once i get my rn, i be in charge of them!

[ZippyGBR, BSN, RN]

in the UK the charge nurse / sister role is a permanent one, but equally there are more experienced staff nurses who do take charge on a regular basis ... the primary difference being that as a Staff nurse in charge of a shift you don't have adminstrative duties other than those required to keep the shift running ( i.e. making sure that bed management information is up to date, supporting the team, being the first line for any inssues complaints, either going on ward rounds of making sure the team nurse is on the ward round ...

Senior charge nurse /senior sister is an AFC band 7 role and is the unit nursing manager

Charge nurse / Sister role is a team leader role and usually AFC band 6 -

Senior staff nurse is generally AFC band 5 although in some settings there are both ' light blue' (senior staff Nurse) and 'dark blue' (sister / charge nurse) band 6s

[madwife2002, BSN, RN]

The charge nurses at your hospital are not required to take any patients??

I've always found that odd that some hospitals don't allow their charge nurses to take patients. Unless it is a very busy floor (a lot of coordinating for many admits, transfers, and discharges), I don't see why a charge nurse can't take 1 or 2 low acuity patients. They typically are not THAT busy... from what I have seen anyway.

No they never ever take patients but it is a busy floor. Even when we are struggling it is up to our co-workers to help each other out most of the time.