Reflective Journal - Week 5

I enjoyed learning about performance appraisals and problems employees this week. It is not the most exciting topic but it is definitely interesting to delve into and learn about. I feel that I personally learned the most about performance reviews and team improvement/building this week. I learned that the purpose of performance reviews is to assess the quality and effort that employees are putting into their job and to communicate with them on way to become better. It is an opportunity to give employees reassurance of their value to the workplace and to recognize them when they are doing well. It is an opportunity to work with employees on goal setting and learning new skills/behaviors. I think making, scheduling, and assessing goals is a huge part of reviewing performance. I learned that it is hugely beneficial to strategically stay consistent with criteria and technique from interview to interview. It is important that employees have a baseline and understand how they are being rated and how they can better improve themselves as employees. It is important not to rush this interaction as this is a critical time for employees to fully understand their need, expectations, and past work quality. I also learned it is important for the managers to approach these interviews in a timely manner as it is very easy to fall behind schedule, thus hindering the entire work environment. I really liked the dynamic of making the exceptional employees even better employees. I hope to be able to include all of these aspects of review into my career as a nurse. Whether I am operating in a leadership position or as a floor nurse, I can take all this information and better myself as a nurse. It was great being able to garner all this information this week. As a new nurse, it is exciting seeing the management perspective on these things and how both sides should approach these situations. I also felt accomplished this week as we completed our Team Building Activity. I wrote much about it last week, but this activity simply and truly was a Team Building Activity!