I work on a tele floor where we have 4-5 patients and I feel like there is no one I can go to when a patient is going bad and needs to be transferred to the ICU. When I do get help I have to be very forceful and demand it. The charge nurse also takes a full team of patients (4-5). We have no monitor tech to watch the monitors and I just feel it is very unsafe. On the rare occassion that I have had a patient go bad my other patients have gotten ignored - well I check on them very quickly to make sure there is no distress.
So my questions are
(1) Does the charge nurse get to be a charge and not take a team of patients?
(2) If the charge nurse does take patients is it less than the other staff and is she given the easier patients?
(3) If you are on a tele floor do you have anyone to watch the monitors? If you're not on a tele unit what type of unit are you on?
BTW, I am a new nurse. Only been a nurse for 6 months and am just trying to figure out what the "norm" is for a tele floor.
On my old unit (tele) on a good night we had a charge nurse (team leader) with no assignment and a monitor tech. at other times the team leader would have a few patients, and usually if it got to the point the TL had a full assignment, we were "encouraged" to call the nursing supervisor for help. i worked with a good team of nurses, though, so if there was a patient going bad everyone available helped to stabilize the patient and get them where they needed to go. also, if the monitor tech is sick (we only have 1 per shift so its pretty easy to get screwed!) most of the time the TL would sit at the monitors.
If you are interested, our TL responsibilities include staffing for the next shift, assigning beds, helping with admits, IVs, hard patients, being a resource basically. The TL also has a ton of paperwork: chart audits, reviews, checking crash carts, etc, etc.
I work LTC/Rehab. When I am charge nurse I do the Tx, lab work, and basically everything I can to let the other two nurses forcus on getting the med passes done timely. I have also performed the role of CNA when we were short on them.
ashleyjean3
74 Posts
I work on a surgical unit with some tele beds. Our charge nurse never takes patients. She is there to check orders, call doctors, help when needed.