If you have few or no patients as charge nurse, do not kick back at the nurses station all day.When a new patient is pending into your unit, do not say “who wants this patient?” You are in charge, you assign that patient.When offering help, offer to do something specific (pass this med that’s overdue, set up the room for your admission, etc.) because a nurse may be so busy they can’t quickly think of which task to delegate to you.
Charge nurse how to#
Charge nurse full#
Sometimes you will be “free” and have no patients, sometimes you may have a full patient load and still need to fulfill the responsibilities of the charge nurse. Be the mediator if your own staff members are having an issue with one another.Deal with unexpected situations (ex: patient has eloped, EMR downtime requiring paper charting, or maybe even a drug deal going down in a patient room!?).Ensure you have the supplies and equipment needed.Regularly round on nurses (and CNAs) to offer help. Support preceptors, new nurses, and nurses dealing with a declining patient.Know who on the unit is unstable because you are the second set of nursing eyes and hands to help out the primary nurse.Give and get charge report (going patient-by-patient, a rough idea of what’s going on with each patient and needs/plan for the next shift).Have a good grasp of the unit as a whole.Assign admissions and make the assignment for next shift.
Know how many beds you have, how many are open, pending discharges, pending admissions.Melissa Stafford, BSN RN CCRN SCRN – highly experienced and currently practicing nationally certified neurocritical care nurse. Our non-Facebook community is just what you need.
0 kommentar(er)
