Charge Nurse Essay

"Charge Nurse" Charge Nurse is a registered nurse responsible for the management of a patient care unit. The primary purpose of the job of a Charge Nurse is to provide direct nursing care to the patient, and to supervise the day-to-day nursing activities performed by nursing assistants. Such supervision must be in accordance with current federal, state, and local standards, guidelines, and regulations that govern the facility, and as may be required by the DON (Director of Nursing) or Nurse Supervisor to ensure that the highest degree of quality care is maintained at all times. As a Charge Nurse, they are delegated the administrative authority, responsibility, and accountability necessary for carrying out the assigned duties. I visited

Medication Nurse will pass medications, and calls pharmacy for medication refills. Usually the Medication Nurse is an LVN. The Charge Nurse will receive phone calls for new orders, laboratory results, receive information regarding admissions, and will talk to family members for any concerns. Both licensed nurse collaborate and report any changes so that everyone is on the same page. For example, if the Charge Nurse receives an order for new medications, the Charge Nurse has to tell the Medication Nurse for changes. The Charge Nurse has to input the new order in the Medication Administration Record (MAR), inform the patient (if they're mentally stable), and inform the responsible part. The Charge Nurse then writes what just occurred in the communication record. The communication record is what nurses use to write what occurred during their shifts. The DSD (Director Staff Developer), is a Registered Nurse that will review the communication report and use it on their Interdisciplinary meeting conference. The DSD is assigned for hiring new employees, does in service meeting with other staff such as continuing education for the Certified Nursing Assistants. Sometimes, all staff meeting for address concerns of each individual. The Charge Nurse does the treatment, calls the doctor for any change-of-condition of the patients, such as fever, skin conditions, etc. The Charge Nurse does the weekly skin assignment, updates the care plan if there are any changes. For example, the patient's care plan initially is for urinary tract infection, if the following nurse receives an order for antibiotics, that Charge Nurse has to update the care plan. So when other nurses comes in to check for the care plan, they will know what treatment has been done, and to know if the treatment is working or not. The care plans that are not resolved are placed in the treatment record,