Performance Evaluations

My first job as a new graduate nurse was on orthopedics and it would not have been possible for me to feel any more out of place than I already did. My mentor and the head nurse went out of their way to assure me that every new grad felt the same way. I was doing my best, but I still felt like a blend of Gracie Allen, Marian Lorne (Aunt Clara on Bewitched,) and any Red Skelton character.My mentor showed me a copy of her part of the evaluation and it was very favorable. Phew! If Hotlips Hulihan's real-life counterpart thought I was doing well, maybe there was hope for me after all. She also said the head nurse was giving me a "favorable" review.On the day the review was due, my head nurse was out sick and the supervisor added her part and turned it in to the DON's office.When the head nurse came back, I had my official review. The supervisor had forgotten to staple the other parts of the review to her part. My entire unamended review said:"Katherine does not polish her shoe laces when she polishes her shoes." She saw mw right after a patient threw up all over by shoes...

My biggest frustration with the "evaluation" process is that management everywhere seems to now be required to divide their staff up into "high performers" and "low performers," and then each group is treated VERY differently. Sometimes staff are divided into these categories based on evaluation results, and other times they are divided this way based on manager preference. Then management is now ENCOURAGED to show favoritism towards the high performers. I really don't know exactly where this practice derives from- I think it might be from some six sigma business principle that was not designed in hospitals. I get the sense that management is *supposed* to invest in the low performers and improve their overall performance. But a great nurse manager is a rare gem these days, and even the good nurse managers are usually too busy to have much time to invest in any of their staff and really help their performance. As a result I have seen nurse managers deal with their low performers in a wide variety of ways, from making up infractions and pushing them out one by one, to only giving the high performers the opportunities they need to succeed and advance on their evaluations (thus ensuring the lower performers remain low performers no matter how hard they try or what work they do), to giving special favors such as flexibility with scheduling to high performers and not to low performers. Does anyone else out there have experience with this high-performer/low-performer conundrum, or have further insight into the issue?

Most of the time annual evals are a joke where I work. They do them ALL in the same month. Also everyone gets a raise, no matter how lazy or outstanding you are you will pretty much end up with the same pathetic raise as well. Our managers are not able to give anyone the highest raise that is "allowed" by our raise scale. God forbid someone actually be rewarded for their hard work and we definitely cannot punish those who are as lazy as they get. : /

Funny I found this thread. I am a new grad with a sub acute job, RN with a BS in bio. My 6 mo review never came and now 2 mo from my one year I get called in for my eval and it wasn't exactly what I expected. Instead of a run through of my skills and how I'm doing I got slapped with an improvement plan following 3 med input errors I made a few months ago that got caught by the night shift crew and were certainly corrected, no harm done to patients. While I am now super careful recheck all orders with at least two other RN s I'm a little disappointed. I was hoping for a little credit for working two months straight without any days off to cover call outs, for doing other nurses orders who have not yet mastered the computer system conversion at our facility. When I though about it, those errors were made at the end of my two month gig when I was running from unit to unit helping with orders and not having enough time to do my own work properly burnt out like a dog. While I am very serious about getting on my improvement wagon, I am slowly learning that the pats on the back are scarce around where I work. So much for an excellent in team work never the less no more doubles for me and as far as my work mates are concerned they r going to have to learn how to use a computer eventually if they want to remain this field.

I hate it when management drags up something that happened months ago. Its not fair really. They should approach you when it first happens to give you a chance to correct yourself. Instead they wait half a year then drag it up and write you up for it. I wish we could write them up for doing that to us.