Question: Making Appraisal Interviews Less Traumatic You are the new night-shift charge nurse in a large ICU composed of an all-RN staff. When you were appointed to the position, your supervisor told you that there had been some complaints regarding the manner in which the previous charge nurse had handled evaluation sessions. Not wanting to repeat the mistakes, you draw up a list of things that you could do to make the evaluation interviews less traumatic. Because the evaluation tool appears adequate, you believe that the problems must lie with the interview itself. At the top of your list, you write that you will make sure each employee has advance notice of the evaluation.

ASSIGNMENT: How much advance notice should you give? What additional criteria would you add to the list to help eliminate much of the trauma that frequently accompanies performance appraisal (even when the appraisal is very good)? Add six to nine items to the list. Explain why you think that each of these would assist in alleviating some of the anxiety associated with performance appraisals. Do not just repeat the guidelines listed in this chapter. You may make the guidelines more specific or use the Bibliography for assistance in developing your own list.