What is clinical supervision?

Put simply, clinical supervision involves the oversight of students/learners performing professional processes or procedures in the workplace.

Essentially, the purpose is to guide, provide feedback on, and/or assess personal, professional and educational development in the context of each learner's experience of providing safe, appropriate and high quality patient-client care (adapted from HWA, 2014). Another way of thinking about this is that clinical supervision is the process that facilitates students to put their theoretical knowledge into practice within the patient/client care environment (Clare et al. 2003).

From a student perspective

Research undertaken for more than a decade continues to highlight that, whilst students value their clinical experience very highly, many feel quite apprehensive and uncertain about being 'out there' on placement. A recent study by Borg at al. (2013), for example, found that aspects related to the clinical setting, supervisors and the student-supervisor relationship all contributed to students' perceptions of being in a vulnerable and exposed position on clinical placement that was complicated by conflicting needs.

Another consistent finding in the literature on clinical supervision is the importance of positive relationships with supervisors as well as staff in the environment where students are undertaking their placements. A positive learning environment can be a very powerful influence on students' motivation, self-confidence and development of the professional knowledge and skills required for practice.

Attributes of 'good' supervision

Not surprisingly, there is no 'best' way of providing clinical supervision. However, a number of studies undertaken in different disciplinary contexts have consistently identified the following attributes as characteristic of 'good' clinical teaching: