Charge Registered Nurse Case Study

Nurses play a vital role in healthcare. They are the patient’s advocate and act as the patient’s “eyes and ears”. Pictured here, is Mark, a Registered Nurse working in the Schulich Heart Centre at Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre, preparing medications for his patients. Making sure the correct medication is administered at the right time is an integral part of a patient's recovery. On his unit, patients are primarily admitted under three services: cardiology, cardiac surgery, and vascular surgery. His ward in particular only has registered nurses as the patients are very acute and registered nurses have more education and training than a registered practical nurse. His daily activities include administering medications, tracking vital signs,

It is no secret that communication is key when providing direct patient care in a skilled nursing facility. However, there is a noticeable lapse in the communication between the care team when providing care to the individual or groups of individuals. Two main parts of any care team are the registered nurse and the certified nursing assistant, as these are the two people whom have the most direct and impactful roles with residents in a skilled facility. The Registered Nurse and the Certified Nursing Assistant play similar roles in providing patient care, but have different roles in its entirety. The role of the Registered Nurse (RN) is defined as having the competency and skill to provide direct and indirect health care to individuals, their families, and communities around them. Services are also provided designed to give out medications, to promote comfort or healing, promote healing, and to also provide the dignity of their patients and patient’s families (American College of Rheumatology, 2015).

On one of my clinical days at San Ramon Regional Medical Center, my classmates and I all had the opportunity to be a student charge on the Med-Surg unit. As I have observed from my work place as well as at our clinical sites, charge nurses are the ones in charge of dividing bed assignments, solving conflicting issues among the staff, helping or coordinating with admissions, and keeping nursing care adequately delivered to patients. Charge nurses also do a lot more including signing doctor’s orders, resource or advisor for others, answering phones and call lights, rounding with doctors, and dealing with family members. I always viewed the role of charge nurse to help other nurses and make their loads easier. As I continue to be exposed to what their role truly is, my views changes through time and experience.

The charge nurse is a person who has the duty of a specific department in a healthcare institution for their assigned shift. It should be noted that a charge nurse is a vital job because the person holding this job has to interact not only with the patient and his families, but also has to interact with doctors, nurses, and other staff members in order to update them about the patients that the charge nurse is looking after. The qualification of a charge nurse is to have a master’s degree from a recognized school that is accepted by most of the hospitals. Furthermore, the charge nurse is supposed to have specialization in a specific area so that she is looking after a particular department in the best way possible (Urden, Stacy, & Lough, 2013). The training of a charge nurse usually involves with diverse ways of dealing with the

In her charge nurse role, Ms. Cetiner evaluates the daily activities of the unit and delegates care appropriately while promoting autonomy of others. She has the skill to make independent and interdependent decisions regarding patient care, staffing and unit issues. She communicates and collaborates with the interdisciplinary care team for seamless, patient-driven

The staff employed in a medical facility depends on many things to keep the quality of patient care in the positive and efficient. Physicians and nursing need the current and most

When nurses are held to a professional standard, staffing becomes safer and more efficient. The professional standard created by the American Nurses Association Code of Ethics (ANACEN) for Nurses is commonly used. The standard is made up of nine points that ensure patients will receive the highest quality of care. The purpose of the standard is to determine whether nurses have the assets, abilities, responsibility, and expertise to make judgments concerning professional practice and optimum care for patients and families (Clevenger, et al. 2005). The goal of safe staffing is to provide optimal care for patients and the patients’ families, so facilities should invest in nurses with a high degree of professionalism who can

The literature provided speaks of the nurse’s responsibility in creating a safe environment for the patient and a healthy work environment for individuals of the organization. Part of providing safe and competent care to patients is for the RN to ensure that she is clinically capable of providing care at the skill level necessary for an assignment, especially when she floats to other units. Otherwise, she must decline the duty to care for that patient, make it known to the charge nurse that the assignment is beyond her competency level, and ask for an alternative assignment that matches her skill set (California Board of Registered Nursing, 1998). In addition to knowing the nurse’s

Mandated nurse staffing plan would require appropriate staffing levels given the unit, acuity of patients as well as the level of experience of the registered nurse. This would result in both patient and nurse safety, with overall satisfaction in delivery of care. The staff committees will implement policies, evaluate and correct errors. In addition, Staff planner (the secretary) will report daily for each unit and for public the licensed number of registered nursing staff for each shift. (“Sec.1899C.(2)Secretarial responsibilities pg6/11). This reduces overworked nurses. Thereby increasing accountability for institutions to plan within house, diminishing negligence and increasing safety of patient and nurse.

Patients want and expect to receive high quality care. Nurses want to provide the best care possible to their patients and like everybody else; want a pleasing job environment. Hospitals, on the other hand, are expected to provide a safe environment to patients, have enough nursing staff and remain profitable (Keller, Dulle, Kwiecinski, Altimier & Owens, 2013). The ultimate goal is to improve quality of care and patient safety across the United States; therefore, all the different interests of these major stakeholders should be taken into

Performed charge nurse duties for the daily operations of a seven adult station hemodialysis unit.

One of my career objectives is to become a charge nurse around 2019, after three years of experience as a floor nurse, to become a leader that brings new change and policy for better patient care. I intend to look for available charge nurse openings within my place of work at Enloe Medical Center. Becoming a charge nurse will bring more responsibilities to my position as an RN. I have done my research, and have been inquiring regarding the roles and responsibilities of a charge nurse in order to better prepare myself for the position. I believe my leadership qualities would fulfill the requirements to supervise the nurse floor all while keeping the balance between administrative tasks and clinical duties.

With over 1 years experience working in various wards throughout St Vincent’s Hospital as well as my placements throughout my diploma studies, I have gained a high level of knowledge of various elements of safety, effectiveness, and efficiency in nursing processes. I have been responsible for delivering a high quality of patient care, by completing tasks included but not limited to the following:

The responsibilities of a charge nurse must first be defined in order to completely understand how they utilize mission command to complete their tasks. A charge nurse’s primary responsibility is to manage the specific ward or floor in a hospital to which they are assigned and the many staff also assigned to that floor. There

Lisa brings a wealth of experience to her new role. Most recently, she served as the Director of Patient Safety at WPH, and previously as a system-wide member of the Patient Safety team. Prior to her current role, Lisa’s career began as a staff nurse in the Medical Surgical ICU at St. Francis. She practiced in North Carolina and worked as staff and department educator in Critical Care