performance appraisals by peers

fergus51 · Oct 14, 2005

I have never worked in a place that did that. I don't think it's a great idea. We are able to give positive recognition to coworkers by filling out a card and placing it in our manager's mailbox. She then keeps a copy and gives the original to the nurse who was praised.

allnurses Guide · Oct 15, 2005

Nope, not a good idea. My hospital was just starting to do that when I was hired and I refused to join in.

Makes it awfully hard to work well together when you know your peers are writing your eval.

We do have a form people can, if they wish, write up a "kudos" so to speak. Something positive.

Work is too political a place to start peer review.

I'd just say no.

steph

Cardiolyte · Oct 15, 2005

I had two peer review/self evaluation/performance eval's for RN's in my mailbox yesterday, due 12/05...........................I have been a nurse for 18mo....This affects our annual raise, based on merit............

**canoehead, BSN, RN** · Oct 15, 2005

If they implement this they need to be very strict about providing examples of actual clinical work instead of vague "she's lazy" or "he never restocks". It can turn into a popularity contest.

sasha1224 · Oct 15, 2005

We have been doing peer performances since I started my unit almost five years ago. I personally hate them. You never know who wrote what since they are anonymous, but if anything negative comes up, then you wonder who said it. Overall, I have never had a bad one though I did have a comment from a PCA(how is that my peer)that she had to do two much of the workload. Sometimes, I don't think they realize how much more and different tasks I am doing then them. It was frustrating. I still did get my full rais though.:)

Tim_RN,BSN · Oct 25, 2005

If they implement this they need to be very strict about providing examples of actual clinical work instead of vague "she's lazy" or "he never restocks". It can turn into a popularity contest.

absolutely!! a facility that I previously worked at had such a system in place. this caused a lot of controversy. I would prefer to not see it used...

Kristiern1 · Oct 25, 2005

A hospital where I used to work utilized this as well and I did not like it. I personally believe if I have negative qualities to an extent that it needs to be addressed in my annual review then it is my manager/director's duty to do so. I think giving people a forum to anonymously "slam" other people is a bad idea. I don't think there is anything wrong with asking coworkers to identify positive attributes but I am definatley against the whole....."identify weakness" thing. Because we all know that our coworkers can never be petty...

True story of my last eval at my last job....I had all kind of positive comments...and then my manager says, Your weakness that has been noted by one of your peers is that you....."need to smile more". This was the proverbial straw that broke the camel's back. This review happened about 2 weeks after my mother died. It really honked me off that someone would identify that as a nursing weakness....and secondly that my director had the nerve to share that with me at that particular time knowing what I had going on in my personal life..

Kristie

Tweety, BSN, RN · Oct 25, 2005

We did peer-to-peer evaluations where we could ask one person to do it and then two were anonymously picked by the manager.

The good thing was we could go to a computer and do one on a manager or director. These people were required to get at least three peer-to-peer reviews as well.

Like a lot of things we do where I work, this idea went by the wayside and was dropped because it involved too much work.

I think it's a good idea. Because for instance I was a charge nurse at night and never really saw the manager who reviewed me. She based my review soley on hearsay.

The problem is you can't count on adults to be fair and mature and honest in their appraisals. Some people use the anonymity aspect to be cruel. So because of human nature and immaturity of some few people, it ruins it, and my opinion is also that it's a bad idea.

I had one coworker who got two glowing peer reviews and one immature and viscious one. Obviously most of the managers got horrible reviews from employees with a grudge.

Good idea in theory. Bad idea when humans get involved.

nicunana · Oct 25, 2005

We have used this system for 5 or 6 years now & the nurses just hate it. The input is usually fair, but a lot of additional work for everyone. At least you are no longer being evaluated by a manager that spends most of her time in meetings. 8 weeks before your eval is due, you are given a self eval to complete. We work from "performance competency documents" which include a list of all the mandatory education completion dates as well as BLS, NRP & TB test. Each job standard is assigned a point value and you are to score it as a 1, 2 or 3, with appropriate documentation for why that score is justified. You must also identify 3 goals that you will attempt to reach prior to your next eval. How well you have met last year's goals is one of the standards that receive a point value. The total score will be somewhere between 100 and 300 and your raise is based on the point total. You have 4 weeks to complete the self eval and then must submit it to 2 peers that have been assigned to you and 1 peer that you have chosen. They have 2 weeks to meet with you, review your self eval and add additional comments. After that, the eval is forwarded to the department manager and she will meet with you to review your PCD, and accept or modify the point value, as well as add additional comments. As you can see, it's an awful lot of work and you have to practically walk on water to get a 4% raise. The peers really try to be as objective as possible, because they want the same consideration in return.