Question

What is the purpose of performance appraisals?

How would you measure a nurse’s productivity?

Discuss the multiple forms that violence can take within the workplace. Why is violence prevalent in a health care environment?

Answer 1

PURPOSE OF PERFORMANCE APPRAISAL

The purposes of the annual performance evaluation process are to promote communication and provide useful feedback about job performance, to facilitate better working relationships, to provide an historical record of performance and to contribute to professional development. The various purpose are:

Evaluation

Provide continuous feedback

Measure performance accurately

Provide clarity of expectation and actual result

Identify area of weakness of employees

Determine training and developmental needs

Provide career path

Determine promotion of employees

Take corrective actions

Decide retention and termination of employees

Evaluate effectiveness of HRM functions

Decide salary and rewards

Reduce grievances

Keep communication lines open

Motivate superior performance

Improve decision making ability

MEASURING A NURSE PRODUCTIVITY:

Nurses make up the largest single group of healthcare workers in acute hospitals and absorb a high proportion of the total budget.

The equation is: target hours (census multiplied by budgeted HPPD) divided by actual productive hours worked. The same equation is used for the daily calculation, with 24 hours as the time period instead of 14 days. Many hospitals are now tracking daily productivity.

We defined productivity as the ratio of output (patient care hours per patient day) to input (paid salary and benefit dollars). We conducted a pilot test using the productivity measure developed from the concept analysis to determine the effects of a differentiated RN practice model on patient, staff, and organizational outcomes.

Multiple forms that violence that can take within the workplace:

Most people think of violence as a physical assault. However, workplace violence is a much broader problem. It is any act in which a person is abused, threatened, intimidated or assaulted in his or her employment.

Examples of workplace violence may include Rumours, swearing, verbal abuse, pranks, arguments, property damage, vandalism, sabotage, pushing, theft, physical assaults, psychological trauma, anger-related incidents, rape, arson and murder

The Five Types of Workplace Violence Incidents

· Type One – Criminal Intent.

· Type Two – Customer/Client.

· Type Three – Worker-to-Worker.

· Type Four – Domestic Violence.

· Type Five – Ideological Violence.

Violence is prevalent in a health care environment:

In certain health-care settings, workers are more vulnerable to violence; still, no setting is completely safe. The various reasons behind this is high worker turnover; inadequate security and mental health personnel on site; and lack of policies and staff training for recognizing and managing escalating hostile and assaultive behaviours from patients, clients, visitors, or staff.

Common factors associated with violence in healthcare environment include:      

1.Gang activity   2.Domestic disputes among patients or visitors                                                      3.Presence of firearms or other weapons 4.Stress                                                                                                               5.Lack of policies and training for security and staff to de-escalate patients or other visitors 6.Staff working in isolation or situations where they have no escape route             7.Poor lighting and other factors restricting vision 8.No access to emergency communication                                                           9.Unrestricted, public access to hospital rooms and clinics 10.Lack of community mental health care. 11. Inadequate security or mental health personnel on-site                                   12.Understaffing