Charge Nurse vs Nurse Manager: What's the Difference?

Both charge nurses and nurse managers have essential roles that ensure a unit's success. However, their scope of practice, responsibilities, education, and salaries differ.

Read this article to explore the differences in these nursing roles and discover which position suits your career goals.

Charge Nurse vs Nurse Manager: What’s the Difference?

The primary difference between charge nurses and nurse managers is their management levels.

Charge nurses work on the unit level, focusing on managing staff during specific shifts. They focus directly on the needs of a clinical unit. Some charge nursing tasks include ensuring proper staffing and augmenting patient and assignment needs on their unit.

Conversely, nurse managers work at the administrative level. They work directly with other hospital administrators to oversee the managerial aspects of a unit. They set schedules, give annual performance reviews, and help create hospital policies. These positions often require a higher education level and plenty of relevant experience compared to charge nurses.

What is a Charge Nurse?

The charge nurse role focuses on managing nursing duties. They work closely with the nursing team to determine staffing needs and assignments. Charge nurses also act as liaisons between the nursing staff and administrators.

While charge nurses often hold permanent positions, a hospital may assign them on a shift-by-shift basis. Charge nurses may take patient assignments during shifts, depending on their unit's staffing. But they usually only need to assist as an extra set of hands when things get busy.

Charge Nurse Duties

A charge nurse's role will vary depending on their shift and unit. However, their primary responsibilities often include the following:

• Making daily staff/patient assignments
• Facilitating communication between nurses and other healthcare professionals during shift
• Coordinating obtaining supplies for the unit as needed
• Delegating tasks to other nurses and ancillary staff
• Monitoring admissions and discharges
• Handling complex patients and family situations
• Caring for patients and assisting staff with their assignments
• Mentoring new staff and guiding new hires
• Updating staff on a shift-by-shift basis
• Performing chart audits
• Assigning patients rooms and transferring patients as needing
• Responding to unit medical emergencies 
• Liaising between staff and management

Salary

Charge nurses earn an annual salary of $85,509 or $41 an hour, according to ZipRecruiter.

Education

To become a charge nurse, you must have a Bachelor of Science in Nursing (BSN) degree and a registered nurse (RN) license. Though not required, some charge nurses will pursue higher certifications and education like a Master of Science in Nursing (MSN) degree.

Scope of Practice

Becoming a charge nurse does not expand an RN's scope of practice. Instead, the position gives you more managerial responsibilities in your unit. Therefore, charge nurses have the same scope of practice as any other staff RN.

What is a Nurse Manager?

Nurse managers are hospital administrators who typically work in an office instead of clinical units. However, since they still have an RN license, they can technically work at the bedside. 

However, they spend most of their time attending hospital meetings, creating schedules, and managing budgets. Additional nurse manager duties include mentoring new staff and working closely with unit preceptors to develop educational plans.

Duties

Although many healthcare organizations consider nurse managers part of the administration, they can also act as charge nurses. In these cases, they'll juggle charge and management nursing duties. However, a nurse manager's primary responsibilities are as follows: 

• Developing unit budgets
• Coordinating staff schedules
• Managing payroll and time discrepancies 
• Collaborating with staff and medical providers
• Supervising unit personnel
• Overseeing the effectiveness of unit operations
• Liaising between nursing staff and other administrators
• Hiring and firing staff managers
• Communicating directly with staff
• Running staff meetings
• Completing evaluations on staff
• Following all hospital safety and legal protocols and procedures

Salary

Nurse managers earn an average annual salary of $102,684 or $49 an hour, according to ZipRecruiter.

Education

Despite their non-clinical positions, nurse managers must maintain an active RN license. Most nurse managers also hold an MSN, MBA, or MHA degree. This advanced degree is essential for succeeding in a role focused on budgeting, oversight, and team management.

Scope of Practice

Nurse managers oversee the RNs on a specific unit as well as ancillary staff. As an RN, a nurse manager can step in and work at the bedside if needed. 

Charge Nurse vs Nurse Manager: Which Role is Right for You?

Both of these roles help nursing units run smoothly and efficiently. But which position suits your career path best? Whether you pursue charge nursing or nurse management depends on a few factors.

Qualifications

These nursing roles require different qualifications. Several hospitals require an MSN, MBA, or MHA degree or enrollment in a master's program to hire nurse managers. If you don't meet these qualifications, becoming a charge nurse may be a better fit.

Clinical vs Administrative Nursing

Nurse management is administrative, while charge nurses still sometimes complete direct patient care tasks. Your preference for bedside vs non-bedside nursing may affect which of these roles suits you.

Charge nursing may be better if you'd like bedside exposure and working directly with other healthcare providers. Conversely, nurse managers can spend entire days in meetings and never step foot on the unit.

Scheduling

Additionally, consider the type of shifts and schedule you are interested in pursuing. If nighttime shifts suit your lifestyle, working them as a charge nurse is a great fit. Nurse managers keep more traditional business hours, working weekdays from 9 AM to 5 PM or 7 AM to 3 PM.

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FAQs

• Is a charge nurse higher than a nurse?

  • Yes, a charge nurse oversees staff nurses on any assigned shift. Some units have charge nurses who work in full-time roles. Other units train rotating nurses to take on charge nurse responsibilities on a specific shift.

• What are the legal responsibilities of a charge nurse?

  • Charge nurses don’t necessarily have more legal responsibilities than regular staff nurses. However, if a charge nurse has an assignment, they are legally responsible for those specific patients. 

• Do nurse managers need a master's degree?

  • While not a requirement for the position, an MSN is helpful as nurse managers are administrative positions. 

• What is higher than a nurse manager?

  • In some healthcare organizations, a nursing director oversees a team of nurse managers. In others, nurse managers report directly to the chief nursing officer.

• What is the difference between a nurse leader and a nurse manager?

  • Many people use the terms nurse manager and nurse leader interchangeably. However, a nurse leader refers to any administrative nurse, including the chief nursing officer.