There is a saying that the best leaders are those who don’t want to lead. When I watch the charge nurse, head nurse, or any nurse in charge of the floor, there is an 8 out of 10 chance that these are people who really shouldn’t lead. (A charge nurse is the manager or supervisor of the shift.)
I once worked a shift with a charge nurse who was grossly unqualified for the job. We will call her Ramona. All she did was sit at the desk and bark orders at other nurses. Imagine that there was no aide on the floor, we were in the middle of passing medications to all patients, and Ramona was sitting at the front desk demanding everyone to answer call lights.
Not only did Ramona not help fellow nurses, she loved to do audits and report nurses to the nurse manager for insignificant things, such as forgetting to do an education documentation on a patient. Ramona worked as a charge nurse for several years without having a patient assignment. If, on the rare occasion that she did get one, it would always be a very easy assignment. (Her assignments would be mostly walkie-talkie patients with two medications.)
In contrast, there was a wonderful young gentleman on the floor once who hardly knew me, but still took the time to say “Hi! I am a nurse on this floor. Let me know if you need any help at all!” We will call him Omar. He was always willing to jump at an opportunity to help, answer call lights, educate others, and actually get the things the patients requested.
Why can’t all charge nurses be like Omar? The sad reality is most charge nurses hardly ever work on the floor with patients. In fact, some nurses become charge nurses to avoid having patient assignments. The problem with that is, after a few years of not having any patient assignments, they are unable to effectively manage them anymore, so they would rather overload the other nurses than take one or two patients themselves.
Now, don’t get me wrong. There are some great charge nurses out there who take an assignment, if necessary, and who are very helpful and understanding. In reference to the nice gentleman, I hope one day he finds it in himself to take on the role of being a charge nurse.
Tip: In my experience, charge nurses are only there for reference and emergencies. They are supposed to know the protocol of the floor, how to run a code (if necessary), place admissions, and make patient assignments. With some exceptions, patient care is usually not the first priority of many charge nurses. But, as Marc Anderson said: Great leadership usually starts with a willing heart, a positive attitude, and a desire to make a difference.
