Grrrr-Evaluation feedback

Trauma Columnist · Dec 22, 2006

Maybe they want the newest nurses to learn to care for the sickest kids while on orientation? Just a thought...the new nurses always got the sickest traumas in the ER.

nurseangel47 · Dec 22, 2006

I'm glad your eval went well. Except for that one bit. Seems that they were just trying to find the ONE little thing to have to mention, huh? LOL

Some NM are like that, in my opinion. They feel that they have to critique even if we're perfect! It sounds like you've been taking on difficult cases of nicu pts tho', so give yourself a tiny break in the assignment and take on a feeder/grower like you said yourself. Let the others have the more difficult ones for a while...see how things go from there. I know you realize this, of course....so here's a :yelclap: for your previous initiative even if your NM doesn't think it's a positive!

Phooey on her!

Have a wonderful holiday season....congrats, again. If that's all they can find in a negative vein, then, I think you've shown them how you can shine!

Take care.

BittyBabyGrower, MSN, RN · Dec 22, 2006

As one who does evals, sometimes when we see that a person keeps taking either one to ones or only certain kinds of kids, it sends up a red flag as to WHY aren't they taking other assignments. Sometimes people don't want to deal with 3 feeders and their parents, they don't want to take the one on ones because it is too much work, etc. You are also locking yourself into one type of patient. That may be were they are coming from. Also, don't you guys do primary and associate nursing? Are you pretty new still...if so, also locking yourself into one type of kid isn't good....there are lots of other things out there. And when you and the others come in and get all the sick kids, then it is the same people who are getting the growers, etc. Maybe you take sicky A and Cindy Lou RN as been stuck with feeders for weeks...she needs a turn with a sick kid. Do you see what I am saying? Not that what you are doing is bad, but you need to take a variety of kids,especially if you have been there under 2 years (I don't know if you have been, but this is our guideline in our unit). Sometimes the feeder kids are harder than the one to ones!

In our unit, we aren't allowed to pick and chose our assignments for this reason. Once the charge person makes out the assignment, that is what you get. You can ask a co worker to change with you, but we don't allow people to come and choose what they want until they ask the other person if that is okay. It could be their primary, or a family that they have been working with for the last 3 days and don't want to change today.

Keep up the good work!

Jolie, BSN · Dec 22, 2006

BBG has given you some important points to consider.

But I do have one beef with your evaluation: the element of surprise. If your supervisor is doing his/her job well, there should be nothing that comes as a surprise on your evaluation. If s/he is legitimately concerned about your choice and input into patient assignments, that should have been discussed with you long before now, when it stands to impact your raise and eligibility for other positions.

Now that you've had time to consider your supervisor's comments, perhaps you could seek out her input as to what kind of patient assignments she would like you to take, and how that will improve your skill set as well as the functioning of the unit.

Good luck!

EricJRN, MSN, RN · Dec 22, 2006

We do things on my unit very similar to what BittyBabyGrower describes. I was surprised to learn that nurses choose their own assignments in some places.

Jolie makes a great point. In my last job prior to nursing school (a supervisory position in allied health), our training on performance evaluations emphasized the 'no surprises' rule. If they haven't heard about it before and thus had an opportunity to fix it, it's not fair to incorporate it into an evaluation.

BittyBabyGrower, MSN, RN · Dec 22, 2006

Jolie, you're right. We do go to people before their eval, esp if other people have said something to us. But we don't have this type of problem, because like I said, we don't allow people to pick and choose what they want. Only the preceptors can do that.

Have any of your co-workers said anything to you about always having one on ones or criticals all the time? That makes a difference also if they have and you continue to take these kids without offering to let others first, and I would put that on your eval...we also incorporate peer evals into our big eval.

2curlygirls · Dec 23, 2006

Nobody has said anything. That's partly why I was surprised. This particular manager isn't very tactful though.

I've been there 6 years. And like I said before, I'm not the only one who consistently picks "sick" babes. There's a whole group of us who get there early to choose our assignments. Some people don't care what they end up with. I do and I'm willing to get up early to get what I want.

My manager said, "Let someone else get a chance to take sick kids" SOme resource nurses will assign newer nurses specific patients as learning experiences. They could always say to me that they would prefer a newer person take this or that baby which they haven't.

I guess I just wonder if the other people got the same feedback.

BittyBabyGrower, MSN, RN · Dec 23, 2006

I am thinking that someone said something to her about people getting there early and always choosing their assignments. We had a group of people that would pawn off admits and then we said, no one but the charge nurse can make changes to the assignment and only then it is done if you ask the person you want to make a change with. There may be people who can't get there extra early to do so and feel like they are getting the leftovers. Maybe your unit should revise how assignments are done, so that this isn't an issue anymore. Just a thought. People may also be thinking that when this group always takes the sicker kids, they are getting left with all the discharges, admissions, etc. So, I guess if I were the manager of your unit, I would have to figure out something. Also, if there are new people, you should give it up to them without having to be asked as they need the experience also.

I commend you for wanting to always have a challenge! Maybe it is time to take the horse by the reins and figure out a new way to do things, especially if people aren't happy with the way assignments are being done. Change is hard to get going, but it may make things easier all around!

2curlygirls · Dec 23, 2006

We did try having the resource assign people because people complained about having to get there early. Didn't last very long. Not sure why....