Got A Bad Performance Evaluation

duskyjewel · Sep 17, 2014

What is negative, according to your evaluation? Where did they state you need to improve?

Concerto_in_C, BSN, RN · Sep 17, 2014

Not attending enough staff meetings (but I fixed that by catching up).

Communications with staff.

Not being aware of my care environment when we are short of staff.

She wrote if there is a questionable information regarding patient status/care plan, I don't actively investigate/seek information (investigation not always possible on the night shift when there is almost nobody I can call).

There was a couple of patient complaints, but I haven't had any since like January.

Many of the things are kind of vague. Manager pulled me into the office after I worked a 12 hrs night shift, I could barely stay awake in there. I won't be able to remember every single detail. I will go over it again when I'm back at the hospital and have access to the software.

sharpeimom · Sep 17, 2014

I've shared this story an AN before but I'll share it again. It was to have been my final evaluation at the end of my 90 day orientation. My preceptor was to have filled the form in, but her son had an accident at school and the nurse-manager who barely knew me did it instead. :banghead: :no:

She filled it all right! Nothing whatsoever about the skills I'd acquired over the last three months. Nothing good. Nothing bad. Nothing.

"Katherine does not polish her shoelaces when she polishes her shoes." That was IT. :angrybird13: The supervisor ended up redoing it after speaking to every other RN and LPN on the floor who had worked with me or who had observed me working. I was given am excellent

review.

Ruby Vee, BSN · Sep 17, 2014

Not attending enough staff meetings (but I fixed that by catching up).
Communications with staff.
Not being aware of my care environment when we are short of staff.
She wrote if there is a questionable information regarding patient status/care plan, I don't actively investigate/seek information (investigation not always possible on the night shift when there is almost nobody I can call).
There was a couple of patient complaints, but I haven't had any since like January.
Many of the things are kind of vague. Manager pulled me into the office after I worked a 12 hrs night shift, I could barely stay awake in there. I won't be able to remember every single detail. I will go over it again when I'm back at the hospital and have access to the software.

Communications with staff is probably the biggest item on there that you need to fix. I cannot emphasize enough how important that one is. You need to get along with your co-workers. If they like you, they'll help you more and you'll be forgiven more (and bigger) mistakes. If they don't like you, every little misstep will be seen as an enormous error.

None of your colleagues should ever sense when you don't like them. Make a show of liking everyone. It's not genuine, I know, and can feel truly awkward. But it's important. Failing to get along with co-workers is one of the biggest reasons nursing staff is let go. Euphemisms such as "not a team player" or "doesn't fit in" mean that you aren't liked on the unit, and "communications with staff" is one way that's expressed on your evaluation.

Not being aware of your care environment when short of staff is another way of stating that you're not tuned in to what is going on in your unit. If you're looking at being advanced in any way -- charge, precepting -- you need to know what's going on outside of your assignment. Fortunately, you can fix both of those in one move by making the effort to get around the unit, chat with your peers and offer to help anyone who looks frazzled. Of course, that assumes that your own time management skills are up to snuff.

Good luck.

enuf_already · Sep 17, 2014

"Katherine does not polish her shoelaces when she polishes her shoes." That was IT.

Oh the shame!! Flo is probably rolling over in her grave about that lack of nursing ethics. That probably falls somewhere under a violation of moral turpitude ;-).

OP, I assume this was a routine eval and not a corrective action eval? If so, you should have some input for a performance eval. If you have specific examples where you were meeting the criteria listed, use those examples. If not, start making a list of all you do for next year.

Evals can be very subjective, especially if you rarely work with the person doing your eval. Toot your own horn and have a list of all you do to contribute to your work environment and make it a safe place to work. Everyone can improve on communication and it is a big factor in safety.

On the days all heck is breaking loose, if mediocrity keeps my patients alive and breathing, then I'll take it!

Good luck to you.

HouTx, BSN, MSN, EdD · Sep 18, 2014

PPs have provided excellent advice but I wanted to offer some illuminating information based on my awareness of what is happening in many health care organizations.

If performance evaluations are directly tied to salary increases, many organizations are requiring managers to 'manage the curve'. In other words, they are told that no more than X% of their staff can be rated at the highest level ... OR .... told that they have to sort everyone into certain categories based upon some external metric so that resulting pay increases will be within budgeted levels. The Jack Welch (former CEO of GE) philosophy (claims that organizations should actively try to weed out the 'bottom 25%' of workers each year) is sometimes used as an excuse .. as part of some sort of "excellence" movement. I call Humbug.

Strange but true. Ah - the wonderland that is management.

Concerto_in_C, BSN, RN · Sep 18, 2014

On the days all heck is breaking loose, if mediocrity keeps my patients alive and breathing, then I'll take it!
Good luck to you.

Haha, this is very good. Thank you for saying this. It really made my day.

:)

RainMom · Sep 18, 2014

If performance evaluations are directly tied to salary increases, many organizations are requiring managers to 'manage the curve'.

Our performance eval is on a 1-5 scale initiated last year. However, we're told that getting in the 3 range is "very good", 5 is pretty much unobtainable. Therefore the majority of staff are getting 2.5-3. I managed a 3.3 but I think that's primarily because I rarely see my manager (night shift, yay) & don't make waves.

SeattleJess · Sep 18, 2014

Communications with staff is probably the biggest item on there that you need to fix. I cannot emphasize enough how important that one is. You need to get along with your co-workers. If they like you, they'll help you more and you'll be forgiven more (and bigger) mistakes. If they don't like you, every little misstep will be seen as an enormous error.
None of your colleagues should ever sense when you don't like them. Make a show of liking everyone. It's not genuine, I know, and can feel truly awkward. But it's important. Failing to get along with co-workers is one of the biggest reasons nursing staff is let go. Euphemisms such as "not a team player" or "doesn't fit in" mean that you aren't liked on the unit, and "communications with staff" is one way that's expressed on your evaluation.
Not being aware of your care environment when short of staff is another way of stating that you're not tuned in to what is going on in your unit. If you're looking at being advanced in any way -- charge, precepting -- you need to know what's going on outside of your assignment. Fortunately, you can fix both of those in one move by making the effort to get around the unit, chat with your peers and offer to help anyone who looks frazzled. Of course, that assumes that your own time management skills are up to snuff.
Good luck.

This is SO important in every working environment that I'm piping on to second this valuable information even though I am a CNA in my first year and won't even start nursing school next week. However, I have decades of work experience and.. it is SO important to keep a "work face", maintain uniform polite and cordial behavior and keep your personal life personal.

I could easily see myself getting a "communications" black mark. During CNA orientation, I saw several practices I did not like and which I'm probably "right" to dislike. However, they weren't immediately endangering and commenting on them was not my place and would have royally ****** my trainers off. So I didn't. Instead, I focused on maintaining my work face, smiling, commenting only on what they did well or taught me that was new and useful and finding ways that I could help them and make their jobs easier. I also made sure to make these comments to their supervisors as well.

I did tell my supervisor about one incident that I thought was patient neglect but kept the details focused on the one event with only the facts needed and focused on finding solutions that would involve my actions in the situation, not the coworkers.

If, like me, you are more task oriented than process/relationship oriented (and also tend to take things at face value and miss the subtext), this will be the hardest part of your job but you can do it.

Rite of passage, baby. Hang in there!

SeattleJess · Sep 18, 2014

Our performance eval is on a 1-5 scale initiated last year. However, we're told that getting in the 3 range is "very good", 5 is pretty much unobtainable. Therefore the majority of staff are getting 2.5-3. I managed a 3.3 but I think that's primarily because I rarely see my manager (night shift, yay) & don't make waves.

Night shift is looking more and more tempting to this future nurse.

duskyjewel · Sep 18, 2014

Night shift is looking more and more tempting to this future nurse.

Come to the dark side.....we have cookies!

Night shift does have many attractive qualities about it.