So I recently have begun to do charge nurse on my floor. For us this basically consists of managing the pager, assigning admissions, communicating staffing to the house supervisors, collecting various data on accuchecks, d/c's blah blah blah, plus a team, blah and MORNING PATIENT ASSIGNMENTS.
Ok well, I am a bit of a perfectionist, and also have a habit of being a bit of a pragmatic controller...does that make sense? Anyway, around 3am I get detailed report on the floor from the nurses, then I sit down and very carefully distribute teams. I look back multiple days to see which patients the oncoming nurses had and try to get patients matched up with familiar nurses. I then review each team deciding if I would be happy with that team and how I would handle it.
Well...sufficed to say, I can take criticism, but I don't take it well when I feel I have done the best I can, and of course at 655am we have...
"The Grumbler"
Barely says hello, acts like you don't exist, grabs her papers and sits in the same exact spot everyday. She filters through her papers and snarls if you have given her too many PCA's.
"The Bi-Polar Shifter"
She comes in much like the Grumbler, however the minute someone from her own shift gets there, she is all excited and chipper, continuing to ignore anyone from night shift. This, combined with the Grumbler, is deadly.
"The Perky Complainer"
Never without a smile this nurse can begrudge her whole team, without even having looked a the summaries. This nurse is never pleased, but she thinks because she says it with a smile, that it doesn't hurt just the same.
"The New Grad"
Sweet and focused, this RN comes in early, grabs up her team and then begins to look panicked and stressed 10 minutes after report is finished. Like the PC, this RN is never satisfied.
"The "Let's Move On"
This RN doesn't care what you give her, and all during report she will make you feel like she doesn't care what you are saying either. She may be varying degrees of "ok, and? ok let's round".
"The Float"
This RN is not from your floor and is really hoping you don't dump her with the incontinent hip fx in 32 with VRE and MRSA. If she can avoid that her day will be fine as she "visits" your floor...remembering not to do anything extra, like stock or clean.
"The Team Player"
This nurse will rip you a new one if you move one person from her team, even if that means she has no isolations and the New Grad has three. Severity varies.
"The 8 Hour"
This RN seems to have gotten grandfathered in somewhere to eight hour shifts. Between your house supervisor, manager and her you have been reminded she is only here for 8 hours a dozen times, and that you have to make sure the oncoming shift knows.
"The Too Many Discharges"
More than two and this nurse will have your head in a whirl for twenty minutes about how this is just unreasonable...too bad there are 12 D/C's and five nurses?!
Now don't get me wrong, I love all my nursing friends, but somedays I just want to grab them, shake them and say "do you realize I spent an hour pouring over your assignments, making micro adjustments to assure you have the best day possible and every day you come in and *****?"
Being the charge nurse really sucks. It's just not worth that extra dollar or so per hour. I would like to go a long time without doing that again, I'd rather disimpact people than be in charge.
So normally I tell people, look I am able to do it, but if I do this charge thing, you aren't gonna like it. Luckily for all of us, they listen.
Hmmm...I wonder which category I fit into? I really try not to complain, and I try to be as self sufficient as possible, but there are nights where I am very disgruntled. I understand that the CN is between a rock and a hard place, but sometimes I can't help but stomp around and grumble a bit.
Specializes in Acute Care Cardiac, Education, Prof Practice.
Hmmm...I wonder which category I fit into? I really try not to complain, and I try to be as self sufficient as possible, but there are nights where I am very disgruntled. I understand that the CN is between a rock and a hard place, but sometimes I can't help but stomp around and grumble a bit.
Well I know I cycle through a few of them, primarily Mellow Drifter and Bi-Polar Shifter. For the most part I try to come in quiet and smile. get my papers (I come in at 630) always, and then take report early if I can.
I hate it when the day charge comes running up and is like "really sorry for your team tonight" because that automatically breaks any peace I came in with.
I try to be very pragmatic and explain my teams quickly and without apologies if I have a hard time making the assignment. But it seems even when I explain them people are still never satisfied.
I think one of the previous posters was spot on...if you haven't done charge, you don't have a clue.
I am a mellow drifter sort of... I thought I was being helpful by not creating a stink about the assignment I get. When I am asked what I want to do, I will say it doesn't matter. I know I am going home at the end of my shift anyway, and won't be back for more than one day after that for awhile. (I work per-diem) So I don't get that "burnt out" feeling that a lot of the regular staff get. I thought I was being helpful by taking whatever everyone else didn't want and just sucking it up without complaining. I am kind of a stoic person, so many probably think I don't care or am not listening during report, but I am.
Specializes in Acute Care Cardiac, Education, Prof Practice.
I am a mellow drifter sort of... I thought I was being helpful by not creating a stink about the assignment I get. When I am asked what I want to do, I will say it doesn't matter. I know I am going home at the end of my shift anyway, and won't be back for more than one day after that for awhile. (I work per-diem) So I don't get that "burnt out" feeling that a lot of the regular staff get. I thought I was being helpful by taking whatever everyone else didn't want and just sucking it up without complaining. I am kind of a stoic person, so many probably think I don't care or am not listening during report, but I am.
I think the name I gave + the description aren't matching what I intended. I think I will change it.
Being the charge nurse really sucks. It's just not worth that extra dollar or so per hour. I would like to go a long time without doing that again, I'd rather disimpact people than be in charge.
So normally I tell people, look I am able to do it, but if I do this charge thing, you aren't gonna like it. Luckily for all of us, they listen.
Dollar or so an hour??? We don't get anything for doing charge....I hated it.
Specializes in Acute Care Cardiac, Education, Prof Practice.
Dollar or so an hour??? We don't get anything for doing charge....I hated it.
We get paid based on levels. Since I am level I (haven't gone through all the paperwork to progress yet) I get paid $2.00 more. If I was a level II or III it would be figured into the pay raise I got.
I'm not yet a working nurse, but have been a manager in both the business realm and the academic realm and I think that these personality types are universal....only the material that they are complaining about changes. I'm currently working in academia while in school and I manage about 15 people, I get the same attitudes, they are just complaining about different tasks.
I try not to fall into any of those myself, having been in the position of dealing with them, but I'm sure that somewhere along the line, someone has felt that I fit in there.
Dollar or so an hour??? We don't get anything for doing charge....I hated it.
My facility also pays an extra buck an hour for charge. 'Bout covers the cost of Excedrin. But we usually don't take patients. I think some find that an incentive. Occassionally, we do have to do charge and be in staffing, but I haven't yet, other than maybe taking an 0600 admission. I've been holding my breath--"Please don't make me take patients, please don't make me take patients..." because I'm not at all ready to do both. Heck, being in charge of myself is a challenge, most of the time! But the sad part is, everything else I do as a nurse is the price I pay to spend time with my patients. Even the PITAs--well, some of them--are the food that makes the rest bearable.
When I applied for charge, I had to put why I wanted to do charge. My reason was "guilt." Recently (from my perspective, at least) one of my coworkers injured herself, slightly. Not enough to miss work, by my manager put her on charge all month to give her a break from so much lifting and turning while she heals. I'm trying really hard to feel sorry for her mishap as I contemplate ways to get her to hurt herself, again, before the end of the month.
I didn't realize it until now. O_O Well I complain about everything but the team itself. Give me w/e. I'm good. (although now thinking about it I can recall a couple of times I complained about my team.............aw crap.)
When I am asked what I want to do, I will say it doesn't matter. I know I am going home at the end of my shift anyway, and won't be back for more than one day after that for awhile. (I work per-diem) So I don't get that "burnt out" feeling that a lot of the regular staff get. I thought I was being helpful by taking whatever everyone else didn't want and just sucking it up without complaining. I am kind of a stoic person, so many probably think I don't care or am not listening during report, but I am. 
Indy, LPN, LVN
1,444 Posts
Being the charge nurse really sucks. It's just not worth that extra dollar or so per hour. I would like to go a long time without doing that again, I'd rather disimpact people than be in charge.
So normally I tell people, look I am able to do it, but if I do this charge thing, you aren't gonna like it. Luckily for all of us, they listen.