The place of 360 degree appraisal within a team approach to professional development

Abstract

The role of appraisal within professional development has assumed a higher profile in response to national policies including those relating to clinical governance and workforce development. Under the guidance of a service development manager trained in human resource management, a new interprofessional Primary Care Practice Team near Cambridge defined and implemented a new appraisal system drawing on the principles of 360 degree appraisal. The appraisal system was designed to support the service function and the team culture, and took into account good management practice and the requirements of partner organizations and professional affiliations. This paper describes how the system was introduced, tailored to the particular needs of the interprofessional practice team, and evaluated. Early experience suggests that the approach enhances understanding of roles and responsibilities and is supportive to interprofessional team development. It is well received by team members involved and by some of the external partner organizations. However, it is demanding on resources and concerns were raised about the completeness of this approach to appraisal.

Together we are more effective: Nursing team members’ experiences of development work on patient education

“…The participants staff's abilities [18,29,30] , promoted occupational satisfaction through the development of their own work, in accordance with [13,14] , and enhanced know-how, which is positively associated with staff support and treatment quality [23,24,28] . The teams provided space for learning and opportunities for staff to learn from fellow workers and share individual knowledge, which are highly important since previous authors [16,21,30] have found that peer development, support and teaching are key tasks of nurses.…”

“…However, common goals, internal interaction, community spirit and shared expertise are also crucial elements of successful network co-operation and teamwork [10,11,17] . When assessing the functionality of teamwork, attention must also be paid to aspects such as: team structure; the roles of team members; whether the operational culture promotes co-operation, trust and a positive team atmosphere; feedback practices; conflict resolution; sharing of information; multiprofessional learning; personal relationships; responsibility; commitment; interaction skills; functional skills; and problem-solving [8,9,12,15,18,19] .…”

Difficulty giving feedback on underperformance undermines the educational value of multi-source feedback

“…One of the benefits of MSF within the healthcare environment was originally expected to be encouragement of team learning (McLellan 2005). An emerging theme, particularly amongst those participants who had been assessed as Foundation doctors, was that MSF should be used to assess other members of the health care team.…”

Improving skills and care standards in the support workforce for older people: a realist synthesis of workforce development interventions

“…Here, support for staff to receive the intervention echoed the organisation's direction following concern from managers. Mutual reinforcement between the organisational goals and workforce development interventions had the potential for greater sustainability and longer lasting effects because of the types of impact achieved, for example, enhancing support workers commitment to their work,22 promoting better understanding of their work,56 60 helping to develop positive attitudes towards older people,55 promoting more tolerance and more interest in residents' behaviours,40 enhancing self-reflection32 and leading to improvements in knowledge 2461…”