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Clinical supervision
Clinical supervision is used by a number of sectors with staff working directly with people with varying needs. It is a method that uses reflective practice and shared experiences as part of professional development.
Clinical supervision has been widely utilised within the National Health Service (NHS) but is applicable to all staff working with vulnerable people.
Street outreach is demanding and, at times, emotionally challenging and clinical supervision aims to address the needs from this. The following is edited from the Royal College of Nursing guidance Clinical supervision in the workplace.
Why have clinical supervision?
Clinical supervision is “a formal process of professional support and learning which enables individual practitioners to develop knowledge and competence, assume responsibility for their own practice, and enhance consumer protection and safety of care in complex clinical situations”.
Clinical supervision is client centred and focused on safeguarding standards of client care. For an organisation the benefits include:
- improved service delivery
- new learning opportunities
- improved staff recruitment and retention
- improved efficiency and effectiveness.
Introducing clinical supervision
Clinical supervision requires resources, cost and time that organisations will need to plan for. It is also necessary to involve staff in every part of the planning stages, as their commitment will ensure that the supervision is structured in the most appropriate way.
Those planning clinical supervision should ensure that the sessions are worker-led and not a management tool to assess performance.
There are many models to clinical supervision found in both academic research and published work on the internet. Services should not feel they must follow one model; clinical supervision is designed to be flexible and should aim to meet the individual needs of the service, its workers and its clients.
These are three examples of structures services may follow:
Educative (formative)
- how to develop an understanding of skills and ability
- how to understand the clients better
- how to develop awareness of reaction and reflection on interventions.
Supportive (restorative)
- exploring the emotional reaction to pain, conflict and other feelings experienced during client care, to reduce burn out.
Managerial (normative)
- how to address quality control issues
- how to ensure frontline staff’s work reaches appropriate standards.
Structuring clinical supervision sessions
Sessions should be considerately structured and managed with clearly defined aims and objectives. A template should include the following:
- a process
- an evaluation system
- outcomes to measure success
- feedback for improvements.
Ground rules and responsibilities should be clearly defined with commitments to the following:
- open and honest learning
- confidentiality
- sharing best practice
- seeking research for evidence-based practice
- facilitating new learning opportunities
- active listening
- provision of educational and emotional support
- a formalised method recording
- creating opportunities for improvements
- techniques to manage team dynamics
Additional resources
The Mental Health Nurses Association gives more guidance on the structure that clinical supervision should take and some of the challenges and barriers of implementation.
The NHS Clinical Supervision – How and Why guide offers ways of introducing clinical supervisions and frameworks for sessions.