New Charge Nurse

Specialties Operating Room

Published

Specializes in Operating Room Charge Nurse.

I just become a charge nurse in the OR at my current hospital. It is the first time I have worked in this role. I was wondering if anyone has any tips or advice for me? I know what things I have loved about charge nurses I have worked with and things I was not a huge fun of. I'll take all the advice I can get!

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At the end of the day, you cant please everyone. You can't be biased towards people you like (dont play favorites) and you cant be biased towards people you arent fond of (dont give someone a bad assignment just to screw them over). Treat everyone with respect and fairly. Also, while people might not understand your reasoning for the decisions you make (and you might not want to tell them), you always must have one that is justifiable and valid for yourself/management because people will question it. Good luck!

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Specializes in OR, Nursing Professional Development.

Don’t be afraid to make surgeons talk to each other. I need extra fingers and toes to count the times I had one surgeon insisting he not wait his turn in line to start an after hours case. I took myself out of the middle of it and told them to tell me what agreement they reached (for cases of the same urgency level; obviously a true emergency got to skip to the front of the line of standard add ons). Don’t be afraid to use your anesthesia provider as an ally in those battles either.

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