Head Nurse Job Description
Nurses aid the doctors in clinics and hospital in administrative tasks as well as in providing health care facilities. In bigger hospitals there is a team of nurses who are handed various responsibilities in various wards and departments of the hospital. The individual team of these nurses is managed by a head nurse. A head nurses also performs all the duties that are generally performed by a nurses but the only difference is that the head nurse manages most of the administrative duties and is at the senior level of the management. Here is a head nurse job description given for your help.
Duties and Responsibilities
- Head nurses manage all the administrative duties of the departments which they are assigned to work in
- They schedule shifts for the nurses and assign duties to them
- They collect work reports from all the nurses regarding their day-to-day activities and maintains a record of them
- They present the records collected from all the nurses to the respective doctors who are handling cases of those patients
- They assist and conduct training programs for the nurses who are new and need help
- They also solve any issues related to the patients
- Head nurses also come in direct contact with the patients and diagnose their health problems
- Inventory management is also one of the responsibilities of the head nurses
- Head nurses review and supervise the pre-operative settings made by the nurses in the operating room and make sure that they have provided required equipments to the doctors
- Head nurses often accompany the doctors when they go on their rounds to check the patients where they present the reports collected by them
- They provide necessary help to the doctors such as carrying diagnostic equipments, etc., to the doctors while they are on round for check-up
- They maintain a log of the entries of the patients in their wards and their health reports
- Head nurses also look for the hygiene in the hospital and in the rooms and make sure that the patients are provided with enough facilities and entertain all types of complaints from the patients
Skills
- A head nurse should have expert management, administration and planning skills
- Ability to assist the nurses and manage the team properly by motivating the employees to work
- Should have good communication skills to understand the problems and resolve them
- In-depth knowledge of all the procedures used in the management of the hospital
- Sound knowledge of the equipments used in the surgical process
- Ability to use various diagnostic methods in diagnosis and provide primary treatment to the patients in emergency
- Good presentation skills to conduct training programs
- Enthusiastic, enduring, and willing to work for extra hours
- Should be focused and willing to help the patients
- Profound written skills and should have proficiency in handling basic computer programs used in hospital management
- Ability to prioritize tasks and good leadership qualities
Educational
To become a nurse one has to purse a 4 year degree program in nursing and should undergo training programs in the same. There are various nursing programs that offer licensure for the nurses. Certified and licensed nurses are in great demand these days. Head nurses should also have serviced as nurses for more than 4-5 years.
Salaries
A head nurse earns about $64,789 per annum as per the U.S. Labor Statistics. The wages are dependent upon the state and many other factors, so they may vary.
The head nurse job description given by us is aimed at providing you the best information. Hope it helped you understand the head nurse duties.
