Twelve tips for effective clinical supervision based on a narrative literature review and expert opinion

Abstract

A set of practical strategies are proposed to assist practitioners to establish an ongoing, effective clinical supervision partnership.

Oceans apart, yet connected: Findings from a qualitative study on professional supervision in rural and remote allied health services

“…The results of this research highlight the important contribution of supervision to health service delivery in rural and remote areas. These findings concur with previous research in metropolitan settings showing supervisees' positive experiences with supervision including enhanced confidence, clinical skills and knowledge 5, 6. Important benefits unique to rural and remote allied health settings included reduced professional isolation and enhanced professional enthusiasm.…”

“…Recruitment and retention of staff in rural and remote areas continue to be challenging, with issues of professional isolation, limited resources, complex service demands and time and distance barriers to accessing support 2, 3, 4. Professional supervision, henceforth referred to as supervision, is one method to support health professionals that has demonstrated widespread benefits to health professionals, patients and organisations in metropolitan settings 5, 6, 7. There have been repeated calls for coordinated professional support programs8, 9, 10 and there are known initiatives being evaluated across the nation11, 12, 13, 14; however, there remains a lack of peer‐reviewed, published literature relevant to rural and remote allied health services 15…”

Reciprocal leadership in clinical supervision comes of age

“…Clinical supervision (CS) works best when based on a collaborative working alliance between the supervisor and the supervisee, leading to a range of benefits to patients, health organizations and health professionals (Martin, Copley, & Tyack, ). However, the optimal approach to collaboration is far from clear, as sometimes a firm and even “disagreeable” hierarchical style of leadership has proved most effective in CS (Rieck, Callahan, & Watkins, ).…”

The holy grail of clinical supervision

“…Clinical supervision has been shown to benefit three groups of stakeholders: health professionals, health care organisations and patients . To date, much of the research focus in this field has been on the first two groups.…”