Evaluations and Raises

[willie2001]

At the facility where I work, we are subject to yearly clinical evaluations. Our merit raise is suppose to be based on our evaluation score. The evals are done by the nurse managers and clinical supervisors, with the input of peers. At my last eval, I was told that all evaluations have to be reviewed by the hospital administator(new policy?) and, if he felt that a particular eval score was too high, then the supervisor doing that particular eval would have to scale it back. This of course would lead to a smaller raise. Does this kind of stuff go on at other hospitals? This administrator doesn't even know me or what kind of job I do. I was informed of this only after noticing that some of the numbers on the eval had obviously been changed. I know this administrator is looking at the bottom line, but if the administation is going to negate the results of peer review and clinical evals, then why even waste the time in the first place? There is a ceiling on the amount of raise you can receive and if an eval happens to show that one exceeds that ceiling, then the numbers get changed to make it look legit. It is very bad for morale. The managers and supervisors don't like it anymore than the rest of us, but that is the way it is, so we are told. Any ideas on what can be done about this??

[NurseDennie, BSN, RN]

Hi Willie -

Take a look at the thread about this very subject.

https://allnurses.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=16155

Love

Dennie

[willie2001]

Thanks Dennie, I did not realize that there was already a thread on this very subject. I have to agree that evals and merit raises handled in this manner are a lot of poopola.

[catlady, BSN, RN]

In my world, the only way to get a "raise" is to change jobs!

[SICU Queen]

Our merit raises are on "freeze" right now due to financial difficulties that the hospital is facing. I haven't had a raise in three years. I'm also looking for another job. :)

[mattsmom81]

I have moved around a lot in my 25 year career for this very reason. The deck is stacked against you with evals and designed to keep the salaries in check; as soon as I hear of a new nurse getting hired on near my same rate of pay, I have been out the door to take advantage of the higher sign on rates elsewhere....also have supplemented with agency through the years.

My last position was the only place I have ever received a substantial merit raise..and it was because I was a charge critical care heart nurse and was flexible, pulling charge on stepdown when needed for her... my director could not afford to lose me.....

Sometimes it helps to be very clear at the time of evaluation that you are not afraid to move on to better pay....it doesn't hurt to see what they will 'offer'.

[RNinICU]

We do merit raises at our hospital too. Seems that the people who get larger raises like the system, and those who get lower raises don't. Go figure!!. Personally, with my merit raise and clinical ladder, I got 16% this year, and I am not complaining.

[fedupnurse]

RNinICU,

Sounds like you either have an objective evaluation tool which we finally got after a lengthy strike and or you have a manager that is actually fair. That's great if that is the case. I have always gotten the top percentage and I still don't like merit increases even with our fair evaluation tool. The reason why is this: I work for business people who have a prioirty of profits. I work Union so they can't touch our eval tool but those at my sister hospitals in our system aren't union and their tools were changed to one that is very subjective and nearly impossible to get the full percentage of a raise. If your manager likes you you might do ok. Otherwise you are screwed. Put it this way, if a suit says it is something good, I run the other way!

[RNinICU]

We have a manager who is usually fair, and who uses objective data for our evaluations. I do a lot of extras too. I am a Primary Preceptor, a Designated Resource Person, and an instructor for the critical care, dysrhythmia, open heart and CRRT classes. I also work on three committees and will float to other floors when they are short. Our evals our done on a point system, and each activity adds points. The number of points you get determine your raise. People who don't do extras got lower raises, and were not very happy. I don't do these things because I wanted more money, though, I really enjoy the teaching and committees.