The Charge Nurse: Leading a Shift

1. Program overview

Charge nurses are promoted for clinical excellence and then given a leadership job with no preparation. This course addresses that directly: allocating a shift against skill mix and acuity, running an effective safety huddle, supervising without hovering, handling a sick call and an escalating ward simultaneously, giving difficult feedback to a peer, managing upward, and protecting your own capacity to think. Practical, realistic about the constraints, and written specifically for the first-line clinical leader rather than for general management.

2. Why this program

• Written for the first-line clinical leader.
• Allocation and huddles taught concretely.
• Includes giving feedback to former peers.
• Realistic about constraints and competing demands.

3. Who it is for

Nurse · Allied Health · Healthcare Manager

4. Program objectives

• Allocate a shift against skill mix, acuity and continuity
• Run a safety huddle that changes the shift
• Supervise and support without undermining autonomy
• Manage concurrent operational and clinical pressures
• Give difficult feedback to a peer or former peer
• Escalate to and negotiate with senior management effectively

5. Learning outcomes

• Allocate a described shift against stated acuity and skill mix
• Structure a safety huddle for a described ward situation
• Prioritise competing demands in a described pressured shift
• Deliver difficult feedback using a structured approach
• Construct an escalation to management with a clear ask
• Identify the support a struggling team member requires

6. Curriculum

1. Module 1: From Clinician to Charge

   • From Clinician to Charge

2. Module 2: Allocation and Skill Mix

   • Allocation and Skill Mix

3. Module 3: The Safety Huddle

   • The Safety Huddle

4. Module 4: Supervision Without Hovering

   • Supervision Without Hovering

5. Module 5: Difficult Conversations

   • Difficult Conversations

6. Module 6: Managing Upward

   • Managing Upward

7. Duration and structure

Total study hours: 3.5 — 2.75h content + 0.75h assessment. Duration is expressed in study hours only.

9. What you receive

This certificate confirms completion of The Charge Nurse: Leading a Shift. Duration is expressed in study hours.

10. Delivery format

Self-paced · start any time · any device · lifetime access to the enrolled version.