I have been in my current job only since August 1. So about 3 1/2 months now. Well, tomorrow my boss wants me to be the charge nurse. Now that sounds all high and exciting but it’s scary when you don’t know all the doctors, their specialities, any of the other hospitals in the state of Texas, yet alone Houston. I asked for at least a day of orientation and it was one of the hardest days I’ve had in a long time. I was charge nurse at Methodist on the weekends and even took a full patient load but things were not as hectic as they seem here.
Here’s a typical day for the charge nurse here vs at Methodist: At Methodist the charge was responsible for making sure the next shift assignments were made, talking to the staffing office to verify staffing numbers, assigning admits, handling any conflicts that may come up during the shift and taking care of 5-6 patients of their own. Here, the charpmge nurse gets report in the morning verbally from the night charge nurse on all 28 patients. She then goes around and introduces herself to all the patients and finds out what their needs are going to be for the day. She then sits with the case manager and figures out what doctors she needs to call to start the discharge procedure which takes most of the day since the doctors mostly round between 4-7pm. Getting them to call back is a nightmare. Then she is responsible for reviewing each and every lab value that comes through the printer and calls all the abnormals for the nurses. She checks all the orders entered by the unit clerk and notes each order on the kardex at the desk and in the computer. This goes on all day non-stop. She calls all the consults and here all the docs like to pad each other’s pockets so they are consulting each other up the wa-zoo. Then the doctors arrive and 7 out of 10 will usually try to yell at you for one thing or another or ask you 100 questions about each and every patient on the floor. When all that is done and the day is over, you have to report off to the night nurse and usually that takes until 8pm or later. Did I mention that the day starts for the charge nurse at 6:15-6:30? Now we don’t have our own patient load or else I’d about die, for real!
So wish me luck and say some prayers that I’ll make it through the shift and never have to do it again for a long long time!
