charge nurse confusion

There are a lot of different people up and down the country, with very different jobs, but who are, or are seen as, charge nurses.
The role takes many different forms, from those who work 9-5 managing the ward, staff budget etc, to those who work shifts, and/or work with patients directly, almost exclusively.

Sometimes the title changes, be it charge nurse, ward manager, clinical manager, etc etc etc.
I believe in Scotland there is currently a review of the role of the 'senior charge nurse'. I have no idea if that encapsulates all the ward managers, clinical area managers, (even the occasional clinical lead, or nurse specialist?), but would be interested to hear how it is going.

Another difference I see in different clinical areas is that a ward can have one charge nurse, or many. I have personally always been a fan of the one charge nurse if it is an inpatient ward. At least then everyone knows who is in charge (within reason, see previous post).
I once had dealings with a 16 bedded acute admission ward with 4 charge nurses, all at the same grade and none identified as being 'in charge'.

Granted, the above scenario would be ideal if things were going a bit hairy, at least senior management would not be able to 'blame' an individual if budget overspent etc, but I just feel that each department requires an identified 'head', so that the 'body' knows what it is doing and where it is going.

Feel free to let me know if your department has one charge nurse, or many, and what works best for your area.