Charge Nurse

Who these nurses care for

Shift-level coordination of a unit — assignments, admissions, escalation and staffing flow.

What the shift actually looks like

Assignments, admissions, escalations and staffing flow, usually while also carrying patients. The role is judgement under interruption more than clinical skill.

Credentials and certifications

Typically required

BLS, ACLS; unit-specific certification

Typical ratio

Unit-dependent

What to specify when you send the req

Whether charge takes a patient assignment, unit size and admission volume.

Why this role is hard to fill

Whether charge carries patients is the single question candidates most want answered and reqs most often omit.

What candidates ask before accepting

Answering these in the req itself shortens the process considerably, because they are the questions that otherwise surface at offer stage and cause declines: Whether charge carries a patient assignment, unit size, admission volume and support from the nursing supervisor.

Contract or permanent?

Contract for census swings, leave coverage and seasonal surge. Per diem to protect ratios without expanding core FTE. Permanent when the seat is structural. The expensive mistake is running contract labour for eighteen months on a role that was always permanent.

Licensure

Registered nursing is covered by the Nurse Licensure Compact in most of the country, so a multistate license lets a nurse work across member states without a new application. Thirteen jurisdictions sit outside it — Alaska, California, DC, Hawaii, Illinois, Michigan, Minnesota, Nevada, New York, Oregon, Puerto Rico, American Samoa and the Northern Mariana Islands — and in those markets every out-of-state nurse needs a single-state license first. Those are the markets where reqs stay open longest.

How we work this req

Every candidate is spoken to before you see them, with licensure for your state, certifications and unit-specific competency confirmed before submittal. We screen to the credential the unit actually needs rather than the title on the posting. Rates sit inside the ranges on our published cost breakdown.