Literature Review On Self Assessment

- The literature shows that self assessment is a form of reflection of nurses on their routine and specialized functions and how their actions and inactions affect health care recipients in particular and other health care professionals in general.
Objectives: - The study seeks to identify the way and manner nurses perceive their performance and attitudes towards their clients and clients’ relatives on one hand and their colleagues and other members of the health care profession, on the other hand. Methods: - A sample survey was conducted using staff and health care recipients at three hospitals in Tamale, namely the Tamale Teaching Hospital (TTH), Tamale West Hospital (TWH) and the Seventh Day Adventist (SDA) hospital. A total of two hundred

The use of reflection through self-assessment has been suggested as particularly relevant to nurses/midwives due to the nature of their work - the need to respond to individual requirements and needs of patients, and to avoid rigid routines of caring acts that can lead to performing duties on ‘autopilot’ (Cox, in Platzer, Blake & Snelling, 1997) or trial and error basis. Self-assessment is thus suggested to prevent complacency or caring through pattern / ritual from occurring, by reflecting on ones practices to allow for individualised patient

Health care recipients see the work of nurses and midwives to be an essential aspect in the health care delivery arrangement.

3. 49 % of nurses/midwives intimated that their own attitude towards clients was negative and 51 % thinks nurses/midwives have a positive attitude towards health care recipients

4. 91 % of nurses/midwives are not satisfied with their working conditions including salaries, poor equipment to work with at the health facilities, poor working environment, lack of motivation from administrators, limited opportunities for promotions and further studies, apathy on the part of management towards problems of nurses and lack of personal protective equipment for nurses, thus exposing them to infection.

5. The study confirms the literature that too many nurses/midwives, still tolerate unhealthy work environments and too little meaningful recognition (Bylone, 2008) even in the 21st Century and are able to cope with work despite gross limitations in terms of working conditions and availability of materials and equipment to work with.

6. The research findings also identified five recognition programmes for outstanding performers including: self-assessment feedback, public evaluation and acknowledgment, written evaluation from supervisors, opportunities for growth, participation and compensation in the form of donations in kind and