Charge Nurses: Undereducated and Underprepared
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Authors
Morris, Jennifer
Issue Date
2019
Type
Thesis
Language
Keywords
Charge Nurses , Education , Leadership , Lived Experience , Training
Alternative Title
Abstract
Charge nurses are first line leaders with a significant impact in the healthcare industry. A lack of understanding exists regarding the lived experience of these charge nurses when they make the transition to this crucial role. By exploring the lived experience of these individuals, utilizing a phenomenological approach based on the work of Max van Manen, the meaning and significance of their transition was discovered.Unstructured one-to-one interviews were utilized with a convenience sample of seven charge nurses who had transitioned to the role within the last two years. Several distinct themes regarding the charge nurses’ experiences were found. Those included: transition training, resources, transition feelings, transition obstacles, M3 leadership training, desired training, charge nurse characteristics/personality traits, and a global theme of “A Cry for Help”.The findings from this study support the argument that improper training can be detrimental to the success of an individual within their role and thus the productivity of an organization as a whole. The charge nurses received insufficient training. This affected many aspects of their lives and could have been remedied with more education and training. The results of this study could be utilized to formulate a training program in an effort to remedy the difficulties expressed by the charge nurses interviewed.