The Effect of the Appraisal Interview on Nurses' Performance in Neonatal Intensive Care Units

Background: Performance appraisal system can be an effective role to improve the infants' health in the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU). The most important challenge of the nurses' performance appraisal system is that the process is not conducted correctly. The aim of this study was therefore to determine the effect of the appraisal interview on the performance scores of the nurses in NICU.

Materials and methods: A randomized clinical trial study was conducted with 71 nurses in two selected hospitals of Isfahan University of Medical Sciences in 2018. The participants worked in the NICU and were selected through convenience sampling method, and then, were randomly assigned to the intervention and control groups. The intervention was an appraisal interview which was done by head nurses, who attended a training workshop to know how to conduct an appraisal process. Control group was appraised without an interview. The performance scores of both groups were collected through approved Nurse Appraisal Tool, developed by the Ministry of Health and Medical Education for nurses, and analyzed by SPSS Software before and after the intervention.

Results: Independent t-test showed no significant differences in mean scores of nurses' performance appraisal before the intervention between the two groups (p = 0.91), but independent t-test showed that these scores were significantly higher in the intervention group compared to the control (p = 0.007).

Conclusions: According to the findings, nurses' performance scores can be increased through an acceptable performance appraisal system with an interview process.