Peer Review Help Needed

[OrthoMama]

Hey everyone! My unit is in the process of implementing peer reviews for RN's and I am in charge of compiling the list. I need suggestions from people who have used them of duties to be reviewed. Thanks!

[HouTx, BSN, MSN, EdD]

Are you referring to performance evaluations conducted by peers? (Just asking, because the term "Peer Review" has a different connotation for Texas nurses) If so, everything must be based upon the duties & expectations outlined in the job description. You can't include anything that is not part of the job. Your HR folks are your experts in this area and should be able to provide you with the guidance you need.

If you are referring to the process, there are a few ways to approach it. Most commonly, a group of peers is selected and the responses are aggregated, so you don't know who said what. Peers can be selected by our supervisor, by you, or a combination of both. Peers include people who work alongside you on the same shift as well as those on another shift who follow you.

I would strongly advise you to avoid a paper-based system with this type of performance review system... it's a huge amount of paper. An online or automated system is much better and helps to protect the confidentiality of responses. There are even free resources such as survey monkey that will do the trick.

[momthenRN]

Ours actually not only emphasized clinical skill and knowledge but the teamwork that needs to be present. It also concentrated on timeliness, communication and professionalism. Our peer reviews are tough.

[TiffyRN, BSN, PhD]

I started a thread several years ago when we started peer reviews. The biggest issue is that virtually no guidance was given initially and the results were disastrous. They were completely anonymous and in some cases they were inappropriate and insulting. Harsh things were said, offensive terms used.

The peer eval process has been vastly changed since those days. Now we are each required to hand out 3 peer evals to co-workers when our yearly evals are due. The form itself is stupid. It lists some fancy froo-froo statements about different behaviors that our hospital espouses. When one fills it out one is supposed to place all the persons positive or negatives under the behavior statement. I just make a list of nice things to say about the person I'm being asked to evaluate. I dare not EVER say anything negative about anyone (see my post I will link to). But it helps now that we get to choose who fills out our evals.

Please provide guidance to your staff before just handing out the forms. That is what happened on my unit and it was really bad.

https://allnurses.com/general-nursing-discussion/peer-evals-didnt-71810.html