Charge!

I'm still a relatively (under 5 years) newer nurse, so I didn't really relish the opportunity to be the charge nurse on one of my recent shifts. We never had them at Saintarama, so I don't actually mind them. At Madison, all the RNs take turns. I know the basic requirements, but it really threw me for a loop. Happily, even with a patient complaining of coronary issues, I survived.

So how did I do it? I asked for help where I needed it. Thankfully, most of the people I worked with that night worked the night before, so the assignments were a breeze. I talked to the charge on the previous shift and she helped me with some other issues. No one complained, so it must have worked.

Most of all, I had a very cooperative team and the oncoming shift arrived on time for the most part, so I got to leave on time. Hooray!

Here are a few interesting things I found out about charge nurses on the internet.

• Lynne Connelly has a great article about being a charge nurse and what's out there in the literature. It's academic, but interesting in that it discusses the competencies needed in a charge nurse role and the factors that can be barriers or facilitators to charge nurses.
• There's even a good book out there about being a charge nurse: A Charge Nurse's Guide: Navigating the Path of Leadership.
• Charge nurses can make or break your unit. This article from Nursing Management talks about the importance of a consistent charge nurse on a unit.
• Who's in charge? is a great general article about the duties of a charge nurse and the legal ramifications from http://www.nurse.com/.
• It's an expired CE activity, but this article from AdvanceWEB also discusses the charge nurse role, including how to get mentally prepared for the role.

Finally, MJ from www.nurseratchedsplace.com has the BEST article about a real charge nurse incident. I really enjoyed it!

Stay tuned!

Nuggets for February 17

I'm luxuriating in my regular day off, and I feel a little better so far. Here are a few things I've encountered recently and some interesting news and sites I've found online.

Stuff from the mailbox and in my neck of the woods

Hospitals fight to keep new nurses from quitting (from www.msnbc.com)
All I have to say to this one is "Duh!". As I learned many moons ago in school, some people only respond to problems if they have a dollar sign (i.e. how much money will it cost you) attached.

And if you stick around...
Nurses Have Many MSN Choices to Advance Their Career (from www.nursezone.com)
I'm pondering this myself, and happily, the number of online choices is quite large.

One of our patients was on methenamine hippurate. I had to look that one up, but alas, my Nursing Central didn't have it listed in my Palm's Davis Drug Guide reference.

We had an interesting case of staph epi on our unit. BTW we don't isolate people for this bug.

From the blogosphere...

From www.aboutanurse.com I found out that Fat Doctor got downsized. Go apply at your nearest VA, doc! We need you!

Head Nurse always has her interesting neuro What to Expect articles (the latest is lumbar drains). In addition, I am very much in agreement with this post on nails. And some people wonder why people don't take nurses seriously!

More later, folks! Have a great day!

ARN journal now online

If you're a member of the Association of Rehabilitation Nurses, you can now access the journal Rehabilitation Nursing online at http://www.rehabnurse.org/. VA nurses: take note. This new issue is dedicated to polytrauma and has some great articles about OIF/OEF veterans who are suffering from multiple injuries.

Rehabnurse.org is a great site, especially if you're looking for information about being a rehab nurse. It's especially advantageous, since you get access to regular free CEs online.

In addition, you can also find some great general rehab-oreinted documents. Specifically, I found a guide on bowel care, which is a very important part of the rehab process. As my old friend G. used to tell me, "rehab is all about bowel, bladder and skin."