Evaluate or Value Nurses – Is There a Difference?
Panic or stressful feelings often surface within a nurse whenever he/she is called into his/her manager’s office to receive an annual evaluation. Many nurses know that comments written on evaluation forms by managers may be biased via hearsay or “gut” feelings. Frequently nurses fear they will have to endure negative or neutral verbiage. Often assessments are not witnessed by the manager or measurable and may not even be valid. Anxiety occurs as a result of the unknown viewpoint of that assessor, whether positive or negative.
Some evaluation forms use a checklist system that states whether the nurse performs tasks or behaviors that exceed expectations, meet expectations or fall below expectations without expectations ever being defined for each issue. The manager may not even be able to cite instances (note: plural) that support those assessments, therefore baseless. If a healthcare facility advertises they give the best care in the region, then performance evaluations of their staff should herald that they exceed expectations. Do you want mediocre nurses (meets expectations) taking care of you? If the majority of the nursing staff is considered average, whose fault is that? Managers should be held accountable for quality hiring, training, encouragement, supervision and support of staff development. Likewise, staff nurses should be allowed and encouraged to anonymously evaluate their manager annually to facilitate leadership growth. (See my article on Differences Between a Manager and a Foreman)
The meaning of the term evaluate (Webster’s first definition) is: to determine the worth of; to find the amount or value of; to appraise. A performance evaluation should not be a tool to dredge up past problematic issues that should have been dealt with at the time they occurred, especially if no subsequent occurrences took place. Managers need to let go of resolved issues and get on with building their team by acquiring trust from their staff.
The Webster definition of value that best suits this discussion is: that which is desirable or worthy of esteem for its own sake. The responsibility, service and self-giving practices of nurses are not menial or trivial. Consider their annual evaluation to be an opportunity to individually thank them for that service along with everything they did to keep the facility functioning. Give credence to that praise by citing genuine examples (note: plural) of their valued performance. Catch staff members doing things well more often than on an annual basis. According to scientific research, gratitude is the most powerful feeling, as indicated by boosts of dopamine and serotonin levels in the brain. People who feel valued will be more likely to value others – be a role model.
Negativity destroys resilience. According to the American Journal of Respiratory & Critical Care Medicine1, an average of 26% of ICU nurses report having symptoms of PTSD, while 86% of ICU nurses report having symptoms of burnout. The rate of reported PTSD symptoms in general nurses is approximately 14%. Well, the rate of US veterans reporting symptoms of PTSD is 18%. So, nurses have about the same rate of PTSD as veterans. Coping with the job may become problematic causing performance to falter, mistakes to occur, and self-medicating to increase. It is in society’s best interest to intervene on behalf of our nurses to develop effective, positive managers and eliminate dysfunctional, abusive foremen.
Positive evaluations do not affect salaries when staff from healthcare facilities function under group contracts. And non-contract facilities provide salaries based upon industry standards. So, managers can certainly afford to praise their staff. Employment “turnover” of nurses is costly to an organization. Acknowledging published articles on the impending shortage of nurses, we need to reassess our treatment and expectations of nurses we currently employ. Truly valuing registered nurses is an important step in the right direction.