Build your ideal nursing unit in exploring the performance appraisal process of your staff nurses
Build your ideal nursing unit in exploring the performance appraisal process of your staff nurses
Performance Appraisal
Subjective and Objective Aspects
Discuss the subjective and objective aspects of performance appraisal evaluations and how nurse managers can make these experiences most useful to clinical nurses.
Evaluators
Examine and discuss who should evaluate clinical nurses. Should it be an evaluation by peers, oneself, nurse manager, shift supervisor, physician, nurse extender, and so on? Students should identify who should participate in the performance evaluation process and what their role should be, with a rationale for why they should contribute their feedback. Build your ideal nursing unit in exploring the performance appraisal process of your staff nurses.
Analyze the common evaluator errors as defined in the assigned readings and describe each in your own words. Discuss how an evaluator can avoid these nasty pitfalls.
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References
Performance Appraisal
In nursing clinical practice, performance appraisals are an integral part of improving performance and not a tool to find weaknesses in practice and punish nurse practitioners. Through collaboration with nurse managers and supervisors, nurses are provided with the opportunity to discuss their clinical performance and to highlight areas that are performed well and those that require support or training. This helps an individual to obtain adequate skills and knowledge to become an exemplary team player (Melnyk et al., 2014). In this paper, I will discuss the objective and subjective aspects that should be included in performance appraisals. A brief discussion of clinical nurse evaluators, the role played by each and the clinical tools that can be used to elicit feedback will also be provided.
Subjective and Objective Aspects of Performance Appraisal Evaluations
When conducting a performance appraisal evaluation, it is necessary to ensure that the likelihood of nurse employees to believe that the entire process is subjective rather than objective is important. Subjective aspects evaluate the performance of a nurse in general while objective aspects evaluate the performance of a nurse against specific established standards (Fan et al., 2015). Subjective features include intangible aspects that a nurse possesses such as personality, communication skills, conflict resolution skills, work quality, teamwork, strengths and weaknesses of nurse practitioners. Build your ideal nursing unit in exploring the performance appraisal process of your staff nurses.
Nurse Managers can make good use of subjective aspects in clinical practice by using the information provided to control how nurses are rewarded and incentivized. Incentives motivate nurses with good performance to become the best and those who perform averagely or minimally to put more effort into their clinical practice (Fan et al., 2015). Similarly, subjective aspects can be used to identify opportunities for training among nurses. In this context, training can be particular to obtain skills and knowledge in problem-solving, communication or to acquire knowledge about the specific topic area in the nursing field. Nurses can then apply this knowledge and skills in clinical practice to improve treatment outcomes.
In the evaluation process, objectivity based on tangible and measurable evidence and this has a less likelihood of biases. Therefore, objective aspects may include, specific ratings on the quantity of work done by a nurse, time to report and leave work, a completion rate of duties assigned among others (Fan et al., 2015). Objective experiences can be made more useful when making decisions about the allocation of work/duties and promotions. This is because objectives aspects provide more tangible data that can be used to gauge a person’s capability to handle specific tasks. Build your ideal nursing unit in exploring the performance appraisal process of your staff nurses.
Evaluators
Clinical nurses should be evaluated by nurse managers. Nurse managers have two roles in clinical practice: to serve as administrative leaders and to provide clinical care. Since they act as in charges, they plan, coordinate and evaluate nursing activities in healthcare settings. According to Fan et al., (2015), nurse managers are experts in their areas of practice and possess exemplary instructional, communication and interpersonal skills to be role models for new graduates, students, and other advancing nurses.
In the performance evaluation process, the role of nurse managers should be specific to orientation, training, appraisal and providing feedback. In orientation, nursing students should be provided with a description of the roles and responsibilities they will be performing. They should also engage then in continuous training to develop their skills and capabilities further (Spano-Szekely et al., 2016). Preferably, they can also identify those with high potential and reward them to progressively inspire good performance. It is mandatory that when evaluating the students, nurse managers provide regular feedback to help the students determine whether additional skills and training are needed for acceptable performance, or whether they exceed expectations. Feedback also helps to minimize instances of poor practice. Possible tools that can be used to provide feedback include the feedback sandwich that starts with positive feedback, negative feedback then closing with specific that build a student’s trust and courage (Helminen et al., 2016). The situation-behavior-impact is another tool which provides learners with the opportunity to reflect on their actions and what they are required to change. Build your ideal nursing unit in exploring the performance appraisal process of your staff nurses.
References
Fan, J. Y., Wang, Y. H., Chao, L. F., Jane, S. W., & Hsu, L. L. (2015). Performance evaluation of nursing students following competency-based education. Nurse education today, 35(1), 97-103.
Helminen, K., Coco, K., Johnson, M., Turunen, H., & Tossavainen, K. (2016). Summative assessment of the clinical practice of student nurses: A review of the literature. International Journal of Nursing Studies, 53, 308-319.
Melnyk, B. M., Gallagher‐Ford, L., Long, L. E., & Fineout‐Overholt, E. (2014). The establishment of evidence‐based practice competencies for practicing registered nurses and advanced practice nurses in real‐world clinical settings: Proficiencies to improve healthcare quality, reliability, patient outcomes, and costs. Worldviews on Evidence‐Based Nursing, 11(1), 5-15.
Spano-Szekely, L., Griffin, M. T. Q., Clavelle, J., & Fitzpatrick, J. J. (2016). Emotional intelligence and transformational leadership in nurse managers. Journal of Nursing Administration, 46(2), 101-108. Build your ideal nursing unit in exploring the performance appraisal process of your staff nurses.