No help from Charge Nurse

SteffersRN87, BSN, RN · Oct 24, 2009

Just remember... every member of the health care team has a job to do... and sometimes it may involve sitting at a desk! I am a staff RN and often function in the role of a resource RN. I do try and help out the staff, but if we have no monitor tech or secretary, I am stuck at the desk watching monitors and putting in orders and answering the phone. There is a lot more to being a charge RN than just making assignments.

tolerantgirl · Oct 24, 2009

well they were not answering the phone, i was, sometimes having to come out of my patient's room to do so. And reading magazines at the nurses station is not the same as making assignments.

nathangenesis · Oct 24, 2009

I can completely relate to what you are talking about. Some people are so insensitive, doesn't even care about us when tasks are piling up....

lorelei1973 · Oct 24, 2009

Frustrated with charge nurse, received no help. But they had plenty of time to sit around. So what is their job anyways, looking at magazines?

I guess I missed the first part of your story where you asked the charge nurse for help or in some way advocated for yourself. No of course their job isn't reading magazines, but sometimes you have to diplomatically ask for help or point something out to them which may seem obvious to you. If you do, and said nurse refuses, then the game changes. If you do, very politely, then you may have cemented a very good working relationship. But like I said, in the absence of any back story or information of substance, what you've said sounds sort of juvenile.

Lacie, BSN, RN · Oct 24, 2009

I guess I missed the first part of your story where you asked the charge nurse for help or in some way advocated for yourself. No of course their job isn't reading magazines, but sometimes you have to diplomatically ask for help or point something out to them which may seem obvious to you. If you do, and said nurse refuses, then the game changes. If you do, very politely, then you may have cemented a very good working relationship. But like I said, in the absence of any back story or information of substance, what you've said sounds sort of juvenile.

Agree with the above poster as I've always had to take patients even as a charge nurse. Heck I took them as a DON when it was applicable and I was asked for help.

tolerantgirl · Oct 25, 2009

charge nurses never take patients on our unit and for the record I did ask for help. And I came here to vent instead of coming home and yelling at my family for hours like so many other people do when they had a bad day at work. I am not juvenile, but I am exhausted because I have worked a lot of overtime but after yesterday, I do not care what happens, I am not working extra again. I really don't need the money anyway. I am financially secure. Have a nice life and thanks so much for all of your wonderful support.

tolerantgirl · Oct 25, 2009

And that is really hysterical about the DON taking patients, we never see ours. I don't even know what he/she looks like.

summerrose_10 · Oct 31, 2009

This is the place you should be allowed to come and vent:redbeathe:redbeathe:redbeathe Sounds like your working your heart out, and sacrificing your personal time off to be a team player(since it's not for necessary financial gain). Thats because your a good nurse, who still cares:loveya:

At the risk of offending you, it has been said "You can only be taken advantage of, if you allow it".

You say...

"well they were not answering the phone, i was, sometimes having to come out of my patient's room to do so."

Soooo....what would happen, if you did not come out of the pts room to answer that phone? Something to think about anyway.

It is nurses like you, who are giving their all, that need to be supported. Reading some of these threads from nurses who are totally "burnt out", makes me wonder how that could have been prevented.

Hang in there, absolutely say NO, when asked to take on extra shifts. You need your rest/time off. Sometimes when your exhausted even the smallest thing can be HUGE.

Remember learning in nursing school, YOU'VE GOT TO TAKE CARE OF THE CAREGIVER!!!!!!!!!! Ya know, when the flight attendant on the airplanes, say "put on your OWN oxygen mask BEFORE assisting others...the same goes for you:smokin:

**canoehead, BSN, RN** · Nov 1, 2009

I'm with purplehockeymom- let the phone ring. If you're with a patient that is first priority in anyone's book.

If you have a charge that likes to sit at the desk give her something to do that's deskbound like taking off your new orders, or calling a doc...you'll tend to have better luck.

diane227, LPN, RN · Nov 2, 2009

Well I am the charge nurse of my floor and I don't have time to read a magazine. I am going from one place to another constantly, starting IV's, assessing patients, looking at patients, talking to patients, signing off orders, fixing orders that are wrong, calling doctors, making bed assignments, doing staffing, etc. I don't even have time to take a break, let alone read a magazine. And I don't even take a patient assignment.