The Charge Nurse promotes a positive image and cultivates positive relationships with colleagues and other facility team members, including but not limited to, unit staff, Unit Nurse Manager, the covering area Nursing Professional Development Practitioner (NPDP), other managers, Chief Nurses, and Providers and other facility staff members. The Charge Nurse promotes ongoing professional development and achievement of all the unit staff in collaboration with the Unit Nurse Manager and covering area NPDP.
As the subject matter expert (SME) of the unit, the Charge Nurse must be highly competent in the delivery of patient care in addition to being capable of managing many activities and challenges in a simultaneous manner with minimal direction. In this role, the Charge Nurse will divide time amongst patient care and administrative duties, with 0.20 FTE being dedicated to patient care and 0.80 FTE being dedicated to unit-based education needs. This division of FTE can be changed at any time at the discretion of the nurse manager.
RESPONSIBILITIES/ DUTIES:
Specific roles and responsibilities for the Charge Nurse include, but are not limited to, the following:
- Coordinate daily operations, make, and post daily assignments.
- Assign work to staff based on individual staff competencies, priorities, selective consideration of the difficulty and requirements of assignments.
- Coordinate lunch periods and breaks for nursing staff, as needed.
- Accept call-ins, update paper schedule and notify the nurse manager and clinical coordinator.
- Conduct morning huddle.
- Make rounds on the unit to assess the needs of staff.
- Serves as a resource for staff members, providers, and others on the unit.
- Promotes adherence to the Joint Commission standard and other accrediting organization.
- Ensure fire drill documentation is completed.
- Checks the defibrillator on the code cart to ensure it is in working order.
- Maintains security and functionality of issued electronic equipment.
- Respond to emergencies on the unit.
- Telephone triage of patient concerns and provide warm hand-off of urgent issues directly to providers, provide CPRS tag/note for non-urgent issues
- Perform Chart audits.
- Maintain records of staff floated to other areas.
- Maintain clean organized appearance of nurse's station
- Assign code response to staff members
- Monitor - recording and taking appropriate action for Temp Trak recordings
- Maintain daily patient census roster
- Scan in daily huddle sheets
- Maintenance and use of contingency computer station
- Knowledge and awareness of unit Performance Improvement projects
- Ensure coverage for late patient care
- Review and update of High Reliability Board as needed.
- Admission assistance for patient care to include notification to bed flow coordinator and coverage for primary nurse while off the unit.
- Clear concise, frequent communication with Nurse Manager, Clinical Coordinator and Unit Based Educator.
- Assignment of routine inspections on Reusable Medical Equipment, Glucometer, Chart audits, staff refrigerator, other unit resources
- Assistance and support of the Orthopedic Clinic and Podiatry Clinic Nursing staff as needed
- Review weekly projected schedule
- Complete documentation in the electronic health record.
- Assist MSAs with patient care needs and questions
- Assist team leaders as need with updating schedule and clinic flow issues.
- Other duties as assigned by nurse manager to meet the needs of the veteran and the mission of the organization
VA offers a comprehensive total rewards package:
VA Nurse Total Rewards Pay: Competitive salary, regular salary increases, potential for performance awards
Paid Time Off: 50 days of paid time off per year (26 days of annual leave, 13 days of sick leave, 11 paid Federal holidays per year)
Retirement: Traditional federal pension (5 years vesting) and federal 401K with up to 5% in contributions by VA
Insurance: Federal health/vision/dental/term life/long-term care (many federal insurance programs can be carried into retirement)
Licensure: 1 full and unrestricted license from any US State or territory
Work Schedule: Day Shift Monday-Friday Telework: Not Available
Virtual: This is not a virtual position.
Relocation/Recruitment Incentives: Not Authorized
Permanent Change of Station (PCS): Not Authorized
Financial Disclosure Report: Not required
