For my interview, I called the human resource department of our local Kaiser Permanente hospital, Here in San Jose. I chose to interview someone in healthcare, since my college minor is in healthcare. When I called the hospital, they put me in touch with a very nice lady ( K. Lavender, human resource manager, Kaiser Permanente Healthcare Systems, August 16, 2010) She mentioned that she had worked for Kaiser Permanente for nearly eleven years, and that she really liked her job.
I told Katherine that I was pursuing an on line degree, and that my present class was Human resource management, and that this weeks assignment entailed asking someone in human resource management two questions;
- What type of job evaluation system is used at your place of employment,
- Who conducts the evaluation?
In answer to the first question, she told me that it really depends on which department you work for. I ask her, what if I were a doctor? She said if you are a doctor, dentist or nurse practitioner, your job performance evaluation would be done by another doctor who also works as a physicians manager, along with two administrators. She stated that their (doctors, dentist, and nurse practitioners) evaluations involve well defined written performance standards; an evaluation tool, and the opportunity for review and feedback, and that the type that worked best for them was called an Open- ended self-evaluation, which involved giving them a yearly list of self evaluation questions.
The email also mentioned that the physicians-NP teams also received checklist evaluations to complete about each other. They are asked to complete the assessments confidentially and objectively and return them within two weeks.
Conclusion
This particular evaluation process seems rather involved and a little scary, particularly when your fellow team members assess you confidentially. Hopefully they will really be objective in their assessment. I think the other aspects concerning goals and training are what you would hope for and expect from healthcare professionals who often hold patients lives in their hands.
