Ok, so my charge nurse orientation? Might as well have just never had orientation. Day #1 of 2 for orientation and I was pretty much running solo the whole shift as charge (and having a patient assignment too).
You know what? I don't like being in charge. I like being "just" a staff nurse, with an assignment, and taking care of my patients. I don't like giving sub-standard care to patients, and trying to make everything run smoothly (or rather, putting out the fires left and right).
Yep, I'm a nurse. Proud of it. Love to care for laboring women, sick pregnant women, new families.
Don't like: being in charge, figuring out patient assignments, running the OR staffing, readjusting patient assignments, trying to pull more nurses out of my ass for patients that are sent from the office and need admitted, figuring out lunch relief, providing multiple other nurses lunch relief because some lazy ass nurses who I assign to relieve them won't do it (or come up with excuses why they can't relieve another nurse), nurses get angry because they don't get lunch relief til 2pm (well, I would be too, hypoglycemia sucks), and the constant ringing of the charge nurse phone. That doesn't even cover everything I have to do when in charge, but that is quite enough to mention.
Oh, and I'm "orienting" to charge nurse again tomorrow, then will be "in charge" on Thursday.
Yippie.
14 comments:
At my glorious hospital, EVERY nurse on the unit is required to start taking charge at ONE YEAR. Whether you've been a nurse for 5 years and now have one year in L&D, or whether you've been a nurse for only one year and it's been on L&D, you're in charge. I was put in charge after having been a nurse for 13 months total, all of them spent on the same L&D unit. Often times I was the most experienced nurse on the unit. Oh yeah, and we're also a high-risk teaching hospital. FUN TIMES. I feel your pain, but I also envy your level of experience!
hah! sounds vaguely familiar...."you don't have to be charge but we don't have one today so can you just carry the charge phone? oh and just plug in staffing later, no biggie." sad to know my hospital isn't the only one pulling this on their nurses.
I hear you...I just want to be a pee-on ER doctor,a factory worker, with no meetings or political stuff included. My question to you is, can you say no? Or do you have to be in charge occasionally? I'd rather you do what you do best...and enjoy.
I hope this finds you well!
Good luck "training" to be in charge...
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Sounds like a familiar scene, suppose that’s why being in charge is an assigned rotated position. At my hospital every nurse is eligible to be in charge with a full work load at 6 mths. On the day shift the charge gets the district closest to the nurses station and 4 pts instead of 6 thus only certain nurses are given this luxury. Very frustrating
I can't believe you have to take a patient assignment when in charge!
We don't do that where I work.
Ugh, sounds so familiar. I also just *Love* being in charge.
Sounds soooo familiar. You get compensated more than I do. I get a whopping $2/shift to charge
75 cents an hour for charge pay here when I was acting IC....as i said - it didn't pay for the bottle of wine i would need at the end of the shift....:(
One time they put me in charge only being 6 months on the job, but because I had 18 yrs experience...it was me. And no, I didn't get a choice either.
oh my gosh - it sounds like we work on the same unit...no lunch until after 2...today I had my first 10 min break after 11 and no lunch till after 3.
and your charge duties sound just like my floor - maybe I should move and work with you :)
At least we get like a buck more an hour - woo hoo a whole $12 extra to be beat up!!
Think I'll stick to just being at the bedside too.
Debbie
Debbie - you get breaks? We don't get those. We're lucky if we can squeeze in a lunch/dinner. Those allowable-by-state-law 15 minute breaks (two of them per 8 hr shift)? NEVER HAPPEN.
Here you get a dollar more an hour for being a charge nurse. If you care charge all the time, it is not so bad. Being pulled into it at random times is overwelming. Hang in there! :)
You don't have too much longer until you're done with school! :)
lol I know what you mean about no breaks. And we get .50c/hr, wahoo!
I can kind of understand where you're coming from. I'm fine with being "just" a dispatcher and never to become a supervisor. Especially if you're not properly trained to do it. *hugs* I hope they take your complaint seriously!
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