Nurse Rachett is nothing if not consistent
Had my annual job review today. Hester has not had the joy of doing mine before; they've been done by managers.
"Can you come up for about 20 minutes for your evaluation?"
"Am I fired?" Had to explain again I've asked that before every evaluation since 1995. Until I know I'm not fired, I can't hear anything else you're saying. And every single job evaluation since 1990 has touched on... how can I put it? My intolerance for stupid, careless, or lazy. I take a fascinated interest in hearing how the next boss will put it.
Hester did well. I have many "growth opportunities" pointed out. Communication- Met expectations. "Heather makes a connection with her patients and is able to communicated with a variety of people at their level.... Heather can get frustrated with systems and other staff and occassionally will let it get the better of her. Learning how to use tact and diplomacy to her benefit is a growth opportunity for her."
My first "Below Expectations" in years- Professionalism. "Heather remains professional in front of patients and is concerned with the organizations image, but at times can be less professional with her co-workers when she diagrees or becomes frustrated with her viewpoint. She unfortunately had a significant lapse in judgement this past year during an inter action with an anesthesiologist, but has had no further incidents since."
This was balanced out with Exceeding Expectations in Accountability, Adaptibility, Excellent Experience, Teamwork/ Interpersonal skills, Time Management,Competent practice, Documentation, and Critical Thinking.
I was told Hester sees me as compassionate, and sees the work I put into making patients feel cared for and cared about. She also let me know that nurses admitting like to get my charts- they know it's complete, and there are no surprises waiting to jump out and ruin their day. *That* really made me feel good- making the job of the next nurse down the life easier frees everyone up to provide more actual patient CARE. "Usually, we can get fast, or thorough. I really appreciate that you are both." And I did an interview for a member of the management team, and didn't realize who I was talking to until almost the end of the call. Apparently she raved to Hester about how kind I was. Such a sweet thing to find out first hand... "Heather has a high quality bar."
She also startled me when she was updating her section on my annual accomplishments, "Did we make you Clinical Team Leader yet?" What? No! Hasn't come up on the horizon. Team Leader is a kinder and gentler name for "charge nurse." Oh, hell, no.
We had some laughs, too. She was showing my how to log in the evaluation tool so I can make notes of projects or accomplishments as they happen instead of trying to remember at the end of the year. "And look! You can see your old evaluations for the last two years!"
"Oh, that's nifty. And you can read back and see that I really was a nice person once."
"... You were? What happened?"
"I'm kidding, Hester. I've never been nice."
"I didn't think so."
Also told her the password I was using most of the summer. "F1r3Wend1". She thought that was awesome.
"Can you come up for about 20 minutes for your evaluation?"
"Am I fired?" Had to explain again I've asked that before every evaluation since 1995. Until I know I'm not fired, I can't hear anything else you're saying. And every single job evaluation since 1990 has touched on... how can I put it? My intolerance for stupid, careless, or lazy. I take a fascinated interest in hearing how the next boss will put it.
Hester did well. I have many "growth opportunities" pointed out. Communication- Met expectations. "Heather makes a connection with her patients and is able to communicated with a variety of people at their level.... Heather can get frustrated with systems and other staff and occassionally will let it get the better of her. Learning how to use tact and diplomacy to her benefit is a growth opportunity for her."
My first "Below Expectations" in years- Professionalism. "Heather remains professional in front of patients and is concerned with the organizations image, but at times can be less professional with her co-workers when she diagrees or becomes frustrated with her viewpoint. She unfortunately had a significant lapse in judgement this past year during an inter action with an anesthesiologist, but has had no further incidents since."
This was balanced out with Exceeding Expectations in Accountability, Adaptibility, Excellent Experience, Teamwork/ Interpersonal skills, Time Management,Competent practice, Documentation, and Critical Thinking.
I was told Hester sees me as compassionate, and sees the work I put into making patients feel cared for and cared about. She also let me know that nurses admitting like to get my charts- they know it's complete, and there are no surprises waiting to jump out and ruin their day. *That* really made me feel good- making the job of the next nurse down the life easier frees everyone up to provide more actual patient CARE. "Usually, we can get fast, or thorough. I really appreciate that you are both." And I did an interview for a member of the management team, and didn't realize who I was talking to until almost the end of the call. Apparently she raved to Hester about how kind I was. Such a sweet thing to find out first hand... "Heather has a high quality bar."
She also startled me when she was updating her section on my annual accomplishments, "Did we make you Clinical Team Leader yet?" What? No! Hasn't come up on the horizon. Team Leader is a kinder and gentler name for "charge nurse." Oh, hell, no.
We had some laughs, too. She was showing my how to log in the evaluation tool so I can make notes of projects or accomplishments as they happen instead of trying to remember at the end of the year. "And look! You can see your old evaluations for the last two years!"
"Oh, that's nifty. And you can read back and see that I really was a nice person once."
"... You were? What happened?"
"I'm kidding, Hester. I've never been nice."
"I didn't think so."
Also told her the password I was using most of the summer. "F1r3Wend1". She thought that was awesome.