By Rose O. Sherman, EdD, RN, NEA-BC, FAAN
A nurse manager from a region with widespread shortages described her leadership dilemma to colleagues at a recent workshop. ” I have a unit where 70% of my nurses now have less than two years of experience. One of my most clinically sound nurses has 18 months of experience. I need her to assume charge nurse responsibilities. She is willing, but I am nervous. I would never have considered this five years ago, but I have no choice today.”
This nurse manager is not alone. What she describes is becoming a structural reality across acute care; fewer and fewer nurses have even achieved a competency level of practice before we ask them to assume charge or precept others. Limited clinical experience comes at a cost: these young charge nurses can’t provide the clinical surveillance their units need, and they have less social capital with their peers. Most find the hardest part of the transition into leadership is moving from being “one of the team” to directing former peers. Pushback on assignments is fairly common.
The Challenges Facing Novices Who Assume Charge
When a nurse with 18 months of clinical experience assumes the charge nurse role, they face two distinct challenges:
1. Good Judgment Doesn’t Replace Clinical Experience or Pattern Recognition that Develops Over Time
At 18 months, a nurse may demonstrate unusually strong emotional intelligence and the ability to make decisions with routine patient care. What they have not developed is the deep exposure required to spot more uncommon clinical deterioration or subtle “failure to rescue warning signs across a 30-bed unit. If approached by a novice colleague who says, “something doesn’t feel right with the patient in bed 14″, the young leader may not have the experience to help that nurse unpack the clinical picture that the patient is presenting.
2. The Authority Paradox
Beginning charge nurses will tell you that leading peers is the single most uncomfortable leadership transition in healthcare. New charge nurses often report profound anxiety around three common friction points:
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Distributing equitable workloads: Hesitating to give a senior colleague an unstable or heavy assignment out of deference.
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Accountability conversations: Staying silent when a peer fails to update clinical records, ignores call bells, or delays care transitions.
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Social isolation: Fearing that enforcing unit standards during the shift will lead to being frozen out during breaks or excluded from off-shift social gatherings.
How Nurse Managers Can Help
To succeed as charge nurses, early-career nurses need support from managers. When nurse managers face the predicament described above, they lobby hard for frequent charge nurse programs. Having at least the basics before you assume charge for the first time is a good start. Nurse managers must install three structural safeguards:
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No “Solo” First Charge Shifts: Mandate at least two to three charge shifts paired directly with an experienced facilitator who acts as a shadow resource.
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The 48-Hour Operational Debrief: Schedule a recurring 15-minute touchpoint within 48 hours of every new charge nurse’s shift. Walk through specific scenarios: What was your hardest bed-placement decision? Did a colleague push back? How did you respond?
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Protect the Charge Role from Patient Assignments: In novice-dense environments, saddling a charge nurse with a full patient load while expecting them to maintain unit-wide situational awareness invites clinical failure. The charge nurse is the unit’s primary clinical risk manager.
© emergingrnleader.com 2026
To lead through these challenges and others effectively, nurse leaders need new tools and strategies. Let me help; I have supported hundreds of organizations over the past six years. Please contact me at roseosherman@outlook.com to book a workshop or keynote for your team. Not seeing what you want on this list? Feel free to reach out, and I am happy to design a custom program to meet your needs.
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