Support from Charge Nurses?

[PennyNickelDime_RN]

I am curious to know if any of you have problems with your charge RN's. I work weekend NOC's and one or two PM shifts/week. I do not have problems on the PM shifts but NOCs are a very different story. I am a relatively new nurse, graduated in May '08 but did not start my job until Sept. I work on a very large busy oncology floor. I have found that on NOC shift the charges are not all that willing or sometimes don't have the time to spend advising newer nurses on situations in which the new nurse hasn't had any experience with.

I had a situation last weekend where I had a patient that was in sustained A-fib, the tele techs kept calling me and the pt. did have a history of a-fib. I explained the situation to my charge and the result was her rolling her eyes and telling me that the tele techs were a pain in the a** and called too much. I was looking for guidance, not for her to fix the problem. I received no support.

In retrospect now, I realize I should have just called the physician to inform him of the rhythm because no harm could have come from that. I did learn from the situation but at the same time I feel that a little more input from the charge would have been of value. Am I expecting too much from a charge RN? We were told that they are there to help out when needed and as a resource. I felt she did neither. I did finally call the physician at 5am but had the charge listened to me I would have called at 8pm instead. I do take responsibility for just not calling and I didn't trust my gut instinct. Thank goodness no harm came to the patient but I feel lucky with that result.

I'm not sure NOC's is the place for me. I just switched from straight PM's to weekend NOC's so I could spend a little more time with my husband. Now I feel stuck and unhappy.