Self-Evaluation of Nursing Performance Self-Evaluation

Self-Evaluation of Nursing Performance

Self-evaluation is the process by which one assesses his or her own work quality. Self-evaluation of nursing practice is when a nurse evaluates one's own strengths, weaknesses, skills and abilities (Krockrow and Christensen, 2003). Nursing is a profession where there is a direct interaction with the patient; therefore, nurses are solely responsible for their practice. How one nurse perceives his or her work performance may be quite different than the evaluation provided by the nurses' colleagues or supervisor. This often results from one's own need for additional training, communication problems or unrealistic expectations.

As Creasia and Parker (1996) mentions, self-evaluation is an important process as it provides the nurse to gain ownership in his or her profession as well as to inform the management of the required tools and support needed to perform the work adequately. Moreover, Self-evaluation ensures a safe, ethical and competent service by means of ensuring professional responsibility, knowledge-based practice, ethical practice and stipulation of service to the public as mentioned by Hall (1996). Nurses undertake a self-evaluation of their own nursing practice on a routine basis. For this purpose, nurses may follow many strategies and practice standards to achieve a proper self-evaluation.

Nurses can participate actively in performance review processes. This way nurses will have the opportunity to consider the feedback of other more experienced health professionals and review their own nursing duties implementing any changes required. Also better quality of work can be produced when there are colleagues judging it rather than oneself. For example, patients with complex care needs have led to community and home-care settings. Therefore, without direct supervision, greater responsibility for competent, safe and ethical nursing service is required. Furthermore, self-evaluation keeps the nurses updated on the most new research techniques and methods available. For example, due to the emergence of new infectious and communicable diseases, nurses can review the most updated evidence of any procedures and serve the best treatments to their patients. This will provide the nurses with the best results in their practice enhancing patient care achieving patient satisfaction.

All nurses follow a set of standards and/or guidelines which critically reflect on their own nursing practice. The main goal of the nursing standards is to provide self-evaluation of the nurse as well as the nurse's performance appraisal at work (Hall, 1996). This ensures to promote professional nursing practice and enable the patient with an understanding if the nursing care is adequate. As well as providing guidelines to nurse researchers in identifying and monitoring the relationships between nursing practice and patient care outcomes. Educational Institutes also use the nursing standards as a guide in creating curriculum. The nursing guidelines also present the foundation for the relative investigations. For example, a nurse can be penalized if the investigation proves that the nurse did not practice following the required nursing standards in the province the nurse is licensed.

According to Lillies et.a (2005) the process of self-evaluation of nursing practice include the quality of practice, education, professional practice evaluation, collegiality, collaboration with the patients and others, ethical provisions, research and resource utilization. The nursing standards are responsible for providing safe, competent and ethical care promoting the patient's health and well-being, choice, dignity, and confidentiality. Also the nurses take accountability for one's own actions promoting justice and quality practice environments. The nurses must realize that they have the ability to determine and express their own moral choices (Krockrow and Christensen, 2003).