Nurses Role
- Clearly understand expectations of their performance,
including the ramifications of not meeting those
expectations.
Achieved when members have clearly defined
roles and objectives.
Ongoing development, mentoring, and coaching
of staff is vital for a healthy and engaging work
environment.
Nurse Leader Role
- Directly influence quality, safety, service, and
satisfaction for patients and frontline nurses.
Chief retention officers of a patient care area.
Help shape the environment and learning milieu
for new employees.
Importance of Clear Role Expectation:
- Every role played by individuals within an organization requires them to assume the personal
and formal expectations of a specified position. - Position descriptions- provide written guidelines detailing the roles and responsibilities of a specific position within the organization.
- Employees must have clear role expectations and
perceive that their contributions are valued. Leaders,
managers, and followers who understand their roles:
Are empowered to succeed
Are likely to be committed to the organization
Demonstrate increased personal health, job
satisfaction, and individual performance
Provide higher level of patient care
managers Role:
- Determine if individual is qualified and fits
the desired culture of unit - Determine inclusion of frontline team members
- Prepare for interview
- Implement Behavioral Interviewing
- Conduct Interview
behavioral interviewing
- Best practice for interviews
- Requires critical thinking via questions
- Situations and experiences of applicant are
discussed - Example: Give me an example of a time you had
a conflict with a team member. How did you
handle it?
applicants role
- Prepare for interview
- Arrive on time and alone
- Dress appropriately
- Answer questions honestly and thoughtfully
Strategies to help individuals acclimate to role:
- Varied approaches
- Role of Preceptor
- Professional Development
- Provide Empowerment to Staff
- Prevent Turnover
Approaches for Developing a New Staff Member
* Orientation
This consists of a structured program that includes
the mission, vision, values, benefits, safety
programs, and other specific topics for the day-to-
day operation of the organization.
Orientation period must be used efficiently to
benefit the employee and the organization
Helps new employees to learn the work
environment and the staff.
Approaches for Developing a New Staff Member
* Residency Programs
For New Graduates
Provides ongoing support and education up to a
year.
Role of the Preceptor
- Many institutions use preceptors who are frontline
nurses because of their strength as role models,
to help orient new staff. The preceptor:
Is an important integrating force that impacts
the organization’s retention rate (Bodine
2020)
Works with orientees to direct and guide the
new employees in the clinical setting
Preceptor Preparation
- Is an important component of successful onboarding of new
nurses.
During times of high turnover and hiring in a work unit,
nurses who have not been formally trained as a
preceptor may need to step into the role. - Best practices include determining how new employees like
to learn first.
Various learning style assessment tools are available to
use.
They help in better implementation of orientation goals.
Professional Development
- Continued development of the staff is a distinct role for the nurse leader. They get to know their employees and their interests and career goals.
Formal meetings and everyday interactions help them learn what is important to employees.
Specific individual development plans can be determined for employees.
Professional Development
The ongoing competency and staff development is critical for
the professional development of the staff
- Some competencies are required for critical components of
the frontline staff nurse position (BLS, ACLS, ECG
interpretation, etc.) - Education related to life safety (active shooter drills, fire,
tornado, and mass casualty events) are required on a
yearly basis. - Specialty areas have expectations for maintaining
competencies contributing to safe, quality patient care.
Provide Empowerment to Staff
Empowerment is a process that acknowledges the values and judgment of individuals and
trusts that their decisions will be the correct ones.
empowerment strategies
- Useful for individual professional development and overall development of staff
- Acknowledge the values and judgment of individuals and trust their decisions
Organizational Responsibility to Empowerment
The environment must be open, and people must feel safe to explore and develop their
potential.
* The organizational environment must encourage individuals to use the freedom of making decisions while retaining its accountability for the consequences.
Enhancing Performance through Empowerment
- Employees’ feelings of empowerment and their ability to perform effectively is enhanced by:
Positive feedback
Achievement recognition
Support for new ideas - Nurse managers can create a climate in which others feel safe to speak up. Sometimes nurses may feel anxious about being vulnerable
prevent turnover
- Retention begins on the day of hire, as costs for
replacement and turnover can be substantial. - Costs vary based on specialty training required (e.g.,
critical care, ED, L&D) as well as the availability of nurses. - Cost can range from $40,038 to $51,700 per year for a
bedside RN. - A watchful eye and recognition of talents by nurses
throughout their onboarding and ongoing employment
helps in retention.
Performance Appraisals
- Provide feedback to employee on performance
- Individual evaluation of work performance conducted on a regular/ongoing basis.
- Formal or informal
- Opportunity for the individual to integrate comprehensive feedback to improve performance
- Should not be the first time for concern to be identified
Ongoing feedback is essential between the nurse
manager and employees. - It is best given as soon as a positive or negative
occurrence happens. - Example: A frontline nurse demonstrating
inappropriate behavior at a patient care area staff meeting.
Performance of the employee is reviewed during a performance appraisal. - The employee is given feedback related to not meeting, meeting, or exceeding expectations.
- All expectations must be met at a satisfactory or
better level.
A performance improvement plan is understood and
articulated by both the manager and the employee for
an employee not meeting the performance expectations
- Includes specific, measurable, and achievable goals
- Allows the individual to understand role expectations
and the ramifications when not meeting performance goals
Informal Performance Appraisal
- Immediate praise for the recognized performance
- Specific feedback is more influential in reinforcing
specific performances
examples of informal performance appraisal
A compliment from family member or patient.
A bulletin board for thank-you notes from patients
and their families in the work area.
A simple “Thank you for all your hard work today!”
extended from the nurse manager to the staff.
Formal Performance Appraisal
- Written documentation according to specific
organizational guidelines - Measures employee performance by using a standard
method
Performance appraisals may include self and peer
evaluations as well as managerial components.
- Peers, subordinates, and unit nurse leaders provide input
so that a nurse has a full performance perspective. - The advantage for:
An individual: Seeing where relationships need
to be strengthened
A manager: Being able to speak about performance
from a broad perspective
