Supervision and appraisal

Abstract

Over the last decade nurses have had to engage with the interpersonal processes of appraisal, performance review and professional supervision (Butterworth and Faugier, 1992). Performance review came about because of changed management arrangements in the Health Service and is generally confined to those eligible for performance-related pay. Appraisal is more widespread and is used in different contexts. It can be a regular opportunity to appraise progress in a job; it can be the term used in remedying deficiencies in how the job is being done; it can be used in exit counselling at times of relocation or redundancy as a result of reorganization; it can be used to refer to the process of examining the nature of a job and the skills required to do it in a grading or re-grading claim. Appraisal may or may not be linked to promotion. Professional supervision, too, has different meanings in different contexts. Many people receiving supervision think of it as being watched over and checked for poor practice: indeed, this view is not unfounded in those situations where supervision is only introduced when a problem has arisen with a particular nurse or job.