Development and validation of a two-way appraisal instrument to promote best practice in casual nursing

This paper outlines the development and testing of two appraisal instruments to promote best practice in the casual nursing workforce. The Casual Nurse Performance Instrument (CNPI) provides feedback from permanent nurses to casual nurses about performance. The Workplace Evaluation Instrument (WEI) provides feedback from casual nurses to teams of nurses in clinical areas regarding the support provided to casual nurses. The two-way appraisal instruments will be completed by 128 casual and permanent nursing staff at Cairns Base Hospital and the Townsville Hospital as part of the performance management intervention to improve standards of care, promote a clinical environment conducive to safe practice, and support Casual nurses to develop professionally. An expert panel of clinicians and key stakeholders (Nursing Unit Managers and Nurse Educators) provided advice on relevant constructs to be tapped by the instruments, and assisted in formulating items. The instruments were piloted on 15 casual nurses and 21 permanent nurses. Both instruments demonstrated high internal consistency with Cronbach's alpha for the CNPI being .97 and for the WEI, .95. The rigorous development and continued testing of these instruments in phases II and III of the project will have primary benefit to the development of an intervention model of two-way appraisal used to raise standards of practice and improve the retention of casual nurses in various regions of Australia