Define Clinical Supervision And Critically Evaluate Its Role As A Strategy For Supporting Safe And Effective Mental Health Nursing Health

Introduction : Define Clinical Supervision And Critically Evaluate Its Role As A Strategy For Supporting Safe And Effective Mental Health Nursing Health

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Supervision is considered an effective procedure that helps to develop an effective care plan by maintaining the professional skills, attitude knowledge and competency of the workers. As per the definition, clinical supervision refers to the procedure to provide support to professionals through effective learning (Gov.au, 2018). The learning is considered effective through reflective assessment of the experiences of self and professionals with adequate experiences and skills. The training procedure can be effective by developing interactions between staff for the above-mentioned purposes to create safe and effective practices. In the case of mental health care, supervision plays, formative, normative and restorative functions in maintaining working efficiency and developing quality work with increased skills. Hence the application of supervision can be considered an effective strategy to develop a quality care plan and work for this purpose.

Thesis statement: This study mainly aims to find out the effectiveness of the supervision process in mental health care to increase the effectiveness and safety of patient care and improvement in all over practice. 

Discussion

Clinical supervision provides the opportunity to exchange experiences between the professionals involved in the clinical practices to increase the skills and knowledge of the staff. Reflecting on clinical practices plays a major role in understanding and appreciating the situation and related actions (Saab et al. 2021). This help to realise the appropriateness of the process, which can be applied in further practices. There are different forms of clinical supervision in mental health practices that includes the normative, restorative and formative domains that help to develop the process. The normative process refers to the managerial approach of supervision that is mandatory to provide supervision as per the regulation and norms of the organisation (Bradley & Becker, 2021). On the other hand, the formative domain is responsible for the development of skills, and knowledge in relevant topics of practice that leads to improving the identity of practitioners as professionals. The restorative process refers to the management of care providers' well-being, such as reducing burnout, enhancing job satisfaction and improving the overall environment of practice to perform effectively. While considering the effectiveness of supervision in improving the safety and effectiveness of care, the formative and restorative domains of supervision can be considered.

In the case of the formative supervision process, the development of clinical skills and knowledge is a major aspect. An increase in professional competency in the mental health sector is mandatory to improve care quality and safety for patients. Improvement in skills reduces unnecessary interventions and related care costs for mental health, and fidelity to evidence-based practices is increased through this process. Control of quality is also a major aspect of supervision through improving skills (Allan et al. 2017). The process helps to improve the self-evaluation of practitioners. The process of supervision includes effective monitoring, development, enhancement and remediation of the professional function. The necessary aspects of the supervision include an increase in knowledge, skills and attitude as per the requirement. In certain cases, certain training is necessary for professional supervision, and in certain cases, experiences can help to gain the role of supervisor by practitioners. The formative domain of supervision can be increased by associating integrity with treatment models. The psychosocial treatment outcomes can be improved through this process (Martin et al. 2021). Effective procedures involve training associated with active learning, a practice-based approach that includes knowledge provision along with skill development. Reflection is considered an effective process of developing the skills and knowledge of nurses and other care providers.

Along with clinical skills, self-evaluation and maintenance of well-being is also an important aspect of clinical practice. The supervisors are also responsible for providing support to clinicians to overcome their working stress and balance work and well-being effectively. Supervision of managing the well-being of professionals can be considered a restorative process that increases the performance ability of the care providers through self-care and management (Bradley & Becker, 2021). The process includes management of employee satisfaction, providing an essential environment of working through effective feedback and mitigation of employee issues, and reducing the burnout level of staff. Crisis in health care professionals, especially in the case of nursing staff is an important issue in this sector that leads to increased work pressure, affecting the mental health condition of the clinical staff. It leads to the lengthening of the working hour of the staff due to increased pressure leading to burnout, which causes anxiety and depression in staff (Kühne et al. 2019). The restorative domain of supervision is responsible for the effective management of the working schedules and environment for the employees to reduce their stress levels. Improved interaction and communication between the care providers with supervisors can be effective to acquire information regarding working environment issues and challenges and guide effective changes in the clinical settings to increase staff satisfaction. 

 The outcomes of effective clinical supervision can be observed in the safety and efficacy of the treatment procedures. Supervision mainly aims for evidence-based learning that is mandatory to increase patient care quality (Allan et al. 2017). This mainly focuses on the development of the skills and attitude of the employees for increasing the care quality. In this case, the skills include decision-making, problem-solving, time management, clinical observation and interpersonal communication skills. They are effective for the counselling and therapies associated with mental health care. Also, the development of care based attitude as per the needs of certain patients is a major aspect of supervision. On the contrary, clinical supervision is not considered to be an effective management tool for managing the non-clinical aspects of employee performance management (Choy-Brown & Stanhope, 2018). The supervisors are not responsible for improving performance on the basis of quantity while overlooking the quality of care. Patient care and problem-based interventions are the major factors of clinical supervision.

Supervision also intends to develop the reflection-based practice of care providers. Experiences gained by healthcare providers are considered as valuable approaches in terms of evidence-based practices (Alfonsson et al. 2018). This help to review the overall knowledge and skills relatable to clinical practices. Identification of the drawbacks and effectiveness of care intervention and specific actions helps to develop the sense of treatment. Also, evaluation of the care plan on the basis of treatment results is necessary to understand future aspects of care. Apart from clinical skills, personal feelings and evaluation are also possible through this process (Watkins et al. 2019). The supervisors are responsible for providing valuable information while monitoring and reflecting during training. Their previous experiences and knowledge of supervision play an effective role in this case. On the other hand, training such as workshops is not considered to be effective for improving certain skills in clinical practices. Also, the supervisors need to provide a specific review of performance to providers, as the intervention process and clinical skill demand can be different in the case of different patients.

Clinical supervision is considered to be a necessary aspect for increasing the working satisfaction of staff, reducing their burnout rate, and decreasing the turnover rate as well. Supervisors are responsible for understanding the needs and challenges faced by care providers in healthcare settings and suggesting effective mitigation procedures (Posluns & Gall, 2020). Although management is responsible for fulfilling employee needs, the identification of issues and their proper solution for increasing care quality is the responsibility of the supervisor. They are responsible for the development of interpersonal relationships with the staff for the purpose, of increasing communication and interaction (Morrison & Lent, 2018). Improvement in communication, behavioural, attitude and care value-related skills are considered to be effective for this purpose. Hence clinical supervision is effective to improve clinical practices in order to increase patient outcomes.

Conclusion

Clinical supervision is an effective process of exchanging the experiences among professionals. This process mainly focuses on issues involved in patients and their related approaches to clinical practices. The supervisors are responsible for monitoring and identification of the issues regarding clinical factors, and the improvement of the practice procedure through formative and restorative aspects. They are mainly involved in the improvement of service in terms of clinical skill development, reflection and evidence-based practice, and increase in employee ability to perform through managing employee work satisfaction. As the major aim of this process includes focusing on practice-related issues observed in the providers and their management, an overall improvement in the care quality is possible through this process. On the other hand, clinical practices are mainly based on previous experience evaluation, reflection and evidence-based practices that are necessary for safe intervention. Hence safety is also ensured through the application of clinical practices. Apart from that, the major issues faced by care providers during work can also be effectively identified and mitigated through this process. As the supervisor increases the interpersonal relationships between staff and the management hierarchy of the organisation and guides the mitigation process, effective overcoming strategies can be developed. Hence clinical supervision is considered a necessary approach for the improving effectiveness and safety of clinical practices in mental health care. 

Reference list

Alfonsson, S., Parling, T., Spännargård, Å., Andersson, G., & Lundgren, T. (2018). The effects of clinical supervision on supervisees and patients in cognitive behavioral therapy: A systematic review. Cognitive Behaviour Therapy, 47(3), 206-228. https://doi.org/10.1080/16506073.2017.1369559

Allan, R., McLuckie, A., & Hoffecker, L. (2017). Effects of clinical supervision of mental health professionals on supervisee knowledge, skills, attitudes and behaviour, and client outcomes: protocol for a systematic review. The Campbell Collaboration, 1-44. https://doi.org/10.1002/CL2.179

Bradley, W. J., & Becker, K. D. (2021). Clinical supervision of mental health services: A systematic review of supervision characteristics and practices associated with formative and restorative outcomes. The Clinical Supervisor, 40(1), 88-111. doi: 10.1080/07325223.2021.1904312

Choy-Brown, M., & Stanhope, V. (2018). The availability of supervision in routine mental health care. Clinical Social Work Journal, 46(4), 271-280.doi:10.1007/s10615-018-0687-0.

Kühne, F., Maas, J., Wiesenthal, S., & Weck, F. (2019). Empirical research in clinical supervision: A systematic review and suggestions for future studies. BMC psychology, 7(1), 1-11. https://doi.org/10.1186/s40359-019-0327-7

Martin, P., Lizarondo, L., Kumar, S., & Snowdon, D. (2021). Impact of clinical supervision on healthcare organisational outcomes: A mixed methods systematic review. PloS one, 16(11), e0260156.https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0260156

Morrison, M. A., & Lent, R. W. (2018). The working alliance, beliefs about the supervisor, and counseling self-efficacy: Applying the relational efficacy model to counselor supervision. Journal of Counseling Psychology, 65(4), 512. http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/cou0000267

Posluns, K., & Gall, T. L. (2020). Dear mental health practitioners, take care of yourselves: A literature review on self-care. International Journal for the Advancement of Counselling, 42(1), 1-20. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10447-019-09382-w

Saab, M. M., Kilty, C., Meehan, E., Goodwin, J., Connaire, S., Buckley, C., ... & Horgan, A. (2021). Peer group clinical supervision: Qualitative perspectives from nurse supervisees, managers, and supervisors. Collegian, 28(4), 359-368. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.colegn.2020.11.004

Watkins, C. E., Hook, J. N., Mosher, D. K., & Callahan, J. L. (2019). Humility in clinical supervision: Fundamental, foundational, and transformational. The Clinical Supervisor, 38(1), 58-78. : https://doi.org/10.1080/07325223.2018.1487355

Website

Gov.au, (2018). Clinical supervision for mental health nurses. Retrieved from: https://www.health.vic.gov.au/sites/default/files/migrated/files/collections/policies-and-guidelines/c/clinical-supervision-for-mental-health-nurses-framework.pdf, Retrieved on: 31 October, 2022