Accountability performance review

As a nurse, take advantage of the opportunity to write your own self-appraisal. Many supervisors have such disdain for the performance appraisal process that evaluating yourself gives you a voice in the evaluation. Contact your human resources department for the forms; however, if there’s no precise format to follow, design your own self-appraisal that includes an assessment of your general nursing skills, clinical expertise, interpersonal and communication skills, and your professional goals as you continue your medical career.

Job Information

Create your own self-appraisal memo with the type of information that belongs on typical appraisal documents. Include your name, employee number, department and supervisor’s name, hire date and location, if you work for a hospital or health care provider that has multiple work sites. Indicate your credentials, such as B.S.N., clinical specialty certifications, and CPR and other life support certifications.

General Nursing Skills

Start with an evaluation of your general nursing skills. These include triage; medical documentation and charting; confidentiality and HIPAA laws; medication administration; blood and specimen collection procedures; and general assessment of patient’s condition. Because these are skills that can be evaluated objectively, choose a rating method, such as a scale of 1 to 5 to describe your proficiency. If you’re an expert at confidentiality and HIPAA regulations, give yourself a 5. Likewise, if you believe you could further develop your skills in medical documentation and charting using technology, rate yourself a 4 with the notation that health informatics is an area in which you need additional training.

Clinical Expertise

List the clinical areas you’ve worked during the evaluation year. Review your previous assignments to ensure you include every area of the facility if you’re a floating nurse. Write a short paragraph about your work in each clinical area, including an evaluation of your work in that area. If you worked in the cardiology unit, describe your standard of care for patients who have congestive heart failure, hypertension, post-surgical issues and cardiac arrest.

Patient Care

Evaluate your patient care skills related to teaching post-hospitalization home care, and explaining procedures and conditions to patients and their families. If you have feedback from patients you’ve cared for or comments from their families, include these in your self-appraisal, whether it was positive or constructive feedback. Give a balanced assessment of your direct patient care abilities, and identify areas where you shine as well as where you could use improvement.

Teamwork

As a registered nurse, it’s likely that you’re a member of your patients’ team of health care providers. Assess your role as a team member, including your ability to collaborate and the successes you’ve had at building interpersonal relationships. If you experienced workplace conflict with supervisors, colleagues or subordinates, save that for a discussion with your charge nurse when you review your self-appraisal.

Professional Development

Review the goals you identified in previous performance appraisals to determine which ones you accomplished and the ones still in progress. Use the SMART goal-setting method. SMART is an acronym meaning specific, measurable, attainable, relevant and time-sensitive. Estimate how long it will take to complete your professional development goals and the resources necessary to help you, such as on-the-job training, leadership development courses or tuition assistance.

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