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Nurse manager (manager)
- Manage the entire health care unit
- Acts as voice for nurses and other allied staff that work for their unit to upper management and hospital administration
- Provide support to nurses and allied staff
- Oversee budgets and staffing issues and more long term issues
- Often do not see patients themselves
- Require higher level of education compared to charge nurse, typically Master of Science in Nursing or some form of extra management training
Charge nurse (manager)
- Manage shift of nurses for the unit they are working on
- Oversee admissions and discharges, staffing, training of new nursing staff
- Provide support to nursing staff
- Often do see their own patients, and play role in overseeing daily nursing tasks of other nurses
- Require 3 to 5 years of RN experience, but no additional education beyond BSN typically required
Ward clerk (unit clerk)
- Handle administrative and clerical tasks of their unit
- Process paperwork, data entry, updating patient lists
- Answer phones and emails
- Perform record keeping and inventory
- Arrange for patient transport including Ontario Patient Transfer (OPT)
Registered nurse (RN)
- Lifeline of the hospital!
- Provide routine care to patients, administer medications and carry out physician orders
- Compared to RPN, RNs can care for more complex patients