Evaluation
For evaluation to be effective, there needs to be
a review of the severity of illness, treatment and
care received, and communication skills.
Evaluation for staff and patients can produce
both positive and negative aspects, the aim
being to gain enrichment from the positives
and to view the negatives as a learning process
for change. A positive statement from one
patient was, 'I was pleased to be able to look at
myself from a sort of outside view and realised
how much I had improved in my mental attitude
and physical condition during and after
the six months since I was in the Intensive Care
Unit'. Negative comments revealed that communication
skills were found to be, on occasions,
pitched at the wrong level for the
patients and their families, as they had obviously
misunderstood reasons for admission to
the ICU and the degree of severity of the illness.
Long-term friendships can be forged
between staffand families from the knowledge
of what they have been through and the support
received at a time when they are at a low
point psychologically. Follow-up care has a distinct
advantage in continuing this friendship
and promoting a sense of identification; as one
patient explained 'it's nice not just to be a number'.
Staff morale and job satisfaction have many
variants which determine overall job satisfaction.
Numerous studies have found that
achievement of the task or success in problemsolving
is an important determinant of task and
work satisfaction (Turner et al 1962, Vroom
1964, Locke 1965, Herzberg 1966).
One of the enriching areas of nursing is the
sense of achievement in returning a patient to
the level of health they perceived as being good. This sense o f achievement can also be
enhanced i f there is definite feedback from
some source (another person or the task itself)
regarding the degree of achievement attained
(Hackman & Lawler 1971).