The New Charge Nurse Survival Guide

Description

Most nurses are handed the charge role with no training for it. One shift you are looking after your own patients. The next you are responsible for the whole unit: the assignment, the beds, the sick call, the family waiting at the desk, the doctor who will not call back, and the nurse who does not want to be told anything. Nobody sits you down and explains how to decide what comes first.

The New Charge Nurse Survival Guide is a 108 page guide to what actually happens on a shift in charge. It starts with what the role really is and how to survive your first thirty days, then works through patient flow and bed pressure, prioritizing when everything is urgent, delegation, staffing shortages and sick calls, difficult staff members, difficult patients and families, what to do when things go wrong, talking to doctors and management, and finally confidence and imposter syndrome. No fluff. No hype. Just the reasoning a nurse new to the role can follow.

What is inside (108 pages)

• Eleven chapters built around the situations that really happen on a shift, not leadership theory: flow and bed pressure, prioritizing, delegation, staffing shortages, difficult staff, difficult patients and families, emergencies, and communicating upward.
• A one page map of a whole shift in charge, from handover to going home, plus a picker that sends you straight to the right framework when something is going wrong right now.
• 84 ready to use scripts in one library, grouped into eleven situations: delegating and assigning, staffing and coverage, correcting behavior, supporting your team, patients and families, escalating, talking to doctors, saying no and holding a line, handover, after something goes wrong, and when you need help yourself.
• A short checklist at the end of every chapter, so you can act on what you just read instead of only reading it.
• A start of shift, mid shift and end of shift checklist covering staffing, acuity, beds, safety and handover, written to be printed and used.
• Quick reference pages for the worst moments: a staffing crisis flowchart, an escalation flowchart, a four stage patient deterioration pathway, and a six step framework for a difficult conversation.
• Four printables you can use on your next shift: the one page shift card that folds into your scrub pocket, a short handover sheet, an after something goes wrong checklist, and an assignment planning grid with one row per nurse.
• A documentation section that says exactly what to write down: eight rules that hold true anywhere, and the seven things to record every single time you escalate.
• A glossary of 18 words used in the book, defined plainly for nurses reading English as a second language, and useful if you are moving between countries where the same thing has three different names.
• Nine honest answers to the questions nurses always ask, including the ones that are not reassuring.
• A one page Charge Nurse quick reference card covering patient safety first and the five rights of delegation.

Who this book is for

• Nurses who have just been told they are in charge, or who will be soon, and have had no training for the role.
• Nurses already in charge who are coping, but want a way of thinking instead of getting through every shift on nerve alone.
• Experienced nurses moving to a new country or a new facility, where the role has the same name and completely different rules.
• Charge Nurses who want words ready for the conversations they keep putting off.
• Not for nurses looking for a policy manual or a formal leadership course. This is real experience plus sensible day to day practice. Your own facility’s policy always comes first, and the book says so.