Charge Nurse

Charge Nurse

Provides nursing care and services to patients/families. Provides direction to licensed practical nurses (LPNs) and nursing assistive personnel. Delegates nursing care according to legal and regulatory guidelines/statutes and organizational policies. Utilizes reasonable judgment in carrying out prescribed medical orders of a practitioner. Functions as primary nurse/total patient caregiver. Serves as resource nurse. Acts as preceptor and takes charge duties as assigned. Serves as charge nurse. Assigns work to unit/clinic staff as appropriate. Ensures unit/clinic operations and nursing care runs smoothly.

Essential responsibilities include performing charge duties, identifying patient care problems and ensuring follow-up, setting priorities for patient and unit/clinic needs, coordinating departmental activities and staff to ensure optimum patient care and resource utilization, making/documenting assignments taking into account patient needs and staff competencies, monitoring daily staffing and adjusting according to census, acuity, and unit/clinic needs, providing clear, consistent direction for staff, practicing professional nursing and delegating nursing tasks to nursing assistive personnel and providing direction to the LPN as appropriate, utilizing nursing process to deliver care, performing any nursing task requiring nursing knowledge, judgment, and skill, administering medications, teaching LPNs and nursing assistive personnel special tasks of nursing care, verifying staff competency to perform special tasks of nursing care as appropriate, being responsible and accountable for quality of nursing rendered and adequacy of nursing care provided when special tasks are delegated to nursing assistive personnel, functioning as primary nurse/total patient caregiver, serving as resource nurse and acting as preceptor, incorporating the KP Vision, Model and Values through out their Nursing Practice, performing administrative and other duties and accepting responsibility as assigned, and may perform patient care to the extent necessary to maintain clinical expertise, competency and licensing necessary to fulfill job responsibilities and to direct the provision of care on the unit.