The Performance Review That Really Matters

Nurses rely on others to give them the praise and acknowledgment, but still, feel unappreciated. This is because they are looking for positive cues from people they have no control of. Instead, nurses should evaluate themselves regularly. Self-evaluations are not just a time for growth but also a pleasure.

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The Performance Review That Really Matters

Imagine yourself working in a nursing unit for 5 years. You anxious anticipate for the day to arrive. Evaluation day! For you, it may feel like an annual graduation day, where each year your manager tells you whether you made it through another year with flying colors or you need to make drastic changes for improvement.

Probably one of the reasons why evaluations hold importance to you is for praise and acknowledgment you hope to get for all your hard work.

Prevention is the best course of treatment, but the same goes to job burnout and stress. There are many ways to prevent you from feeling dissatisfied of your job and instead feel pleasure and reward. I feel that you as a nurse are burnt out and feel unappreciated because you waiting for external cues to provide you with praise and acknowledgment.

So, why wait for others to give you that good feeling you crave on a daily basis? You control your behaviors, emotions, and values, so why should you remain burnt out and miserable waiting for your annual performance review to determine your progress as a nurse and make you feel pleasure.

A performance review is just someone's opinion, a person who sees you for what...twice a week, if that.

Your beliefs and feelings of your performance are the most important. You can probably benefit from giving yourself a self-evaluation. You can gain so much insight about learning what areas you are dissatisfied about and find ways to make it better.

What would you gain from lying to yourself.... it's a self-evaluation. Even if you find an area that you can improve on, you would only be cheating yourself not to be honest. Remember when you are down, you can't go anywhere but up.

Who is the one person we have control of?

Who is the one person that can give you that praise and acknowledgment of your great work each and every day?

It is you!

You have no control of what other people perceive you, or how they evaluate you. However, you have control of your own feelings and beliefs towards your performance. So commit evaluating yourself daily, monthly, annually, whichever you feel appropriate for yourself. Don't wait for the annual evaluation day to define you as a nurse. Commit to yourself that you hold the power to empower and praise the one person that really matters in your life...yourself!

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awakenthepassion

About awakenthepassion

RN with experience in the Med/Surg specialty.

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Specializes in Oncology&Homecare.

Good idea. We can all benefit from constructive self examination. It should be incorporated into nursing education. It may sound like a simple idea, but it may be harder to execute ( for many reasons ) than one might think.

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