The Transition From Staff Nurse to Charge Nurse

• Some nurses may get the opportunity to increase their professional development and transition into a charge nurse role. 
• Charge nurse is a nursing leadership role where the shift is from patient care to lead and serve as a role model to the staff nurses. 
• While one’s nursing skills will still be utilized, learn how the transition between staff to charge nurse requires a different outlook in nursing. 

Nursing can be a wonderful and amazing career that can be individually driven from personal preferences or goals. Throughout each nurse’s career, they will experience numerous transitions that may be intentional or unintentional.   

As a new graduate of nursing, there is major transition from nursing school to the bedside. Transitioning to new pathways of nursing or navigating through various specialties can all come with their own skill sets and unique learning curves.  

In addition, some nurses will make the decision to increase their professional development and transition to a charge nurse role. Entering into a charge nurse role within the same department that you have mastered skills on, as a staff nurse, can still present its own individual learning aspects.  

Charge Nurse Outlook and Perspective

Becoming a charge nurse allows for additional experience and knowledge to be gained in new ways than previously encountered. Charge nurses receive the opportunity to not only provide patient care, but to serve as a leader and role model to the staff nurses on their shift.  

Each charge nurse may have an individual way to conduct and run his or her shift, to help ensure it runs as smooth as possible.   

If a staff nurse navigates into a charge nurse position, they will take their gained knowledge and experience in caring for their patient assignment, and now it will be utilized in a broader perspective.  

This outlook will be one the most substantial changes a new charge nurse will endure. Originally, that focus on my patients and my assignment, will be diverted to all staff on the floor, all assignments, and all the moving parts that go with it.  

The acquired experience and knowledge with identifying higher acuity patients within their personal assignment in order to prioritize and strategize for time management will be done on a larger scale. Strategy will now include looking at the acuity level and mix among all assignments, while taking into consideration the amount of experience each nurse on shift has.  

This game planning will also have to be synchronized to considerations in looking at staff that can use higher acuity experiences, presenting opportunities to student nurses, and any staff needing orientation to various patient types.  

Skill Shifting as Charge Nurse

Additionally, shifting skills that you had previously mastered, a new direction. Like explaining a necessary procedure to a reluctant patient, but now it may be explaining an assignment to a disgruntled nurse.  The basic concept of you have to give respect, to get respect, is definitely applicable to the charge nurse role.  

Showing appreciation to staff that take on a more difficult assignment or come in extra to help out, can seem meniscal, but can speak volumes coming from their leader.  

Always remember to pitch in and be a helper, all while being careful to separate being an enabler or knowing when to draw the line.  

Becoming a charge nurse can be like hitting the reset button, while building up new skills or honing previously acquired skills. Below are some of the additional responsibilities that can be seen in this role.  

• Conflict resolution 
• Enhanced critical thinking on multiple patients 
• Time management for all staff to get to breaks 
• Organizing and reorganizing to account for contingencies 
• Enhanced communication between staff, ancillary departments, physicians, and patients 
• Coordination between other areas of the hospital for admissions and discharges 
• Engaging with various departments 
• Arranging consults 
• Acquiring supplies 
• Reporting broken equipment  
• Reviewing staffing for upcoming shifts 

Experience is a significant part of being a successful charge nurse, but assuming the responsibility for all staff and all patients during your shift is a challenge that is not for all. Which is perfectly acceptable, and there is absolutely nothing wrong with it.  

Having an experienced charge nurse, who is an ineffective leader, can lead to staff burnout and turnover, as well as patient dissatisfaction.  

The Bottom Line

Throughout my own personal career, I have been able to work with several staff nurses and charge nurses ranging from their first clinical experience to practicing longer than I have been alive.  

These experiences have provided me insight into astonishing charge nurses and not so astonishing ones. I have seen firsthand how a charge nurse can set the tone for the entire shift. 

 Watching two charge nurses function with the exact same census, the exact same level of patient acuity, and exact same staffing run like a well-oiled machine or become a quick hair pulling, frustrating, and horrendous shift all depending on the charge nurse.  

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