is anyone familiar with the phrase 'Clinical Supervision'?

[scared'o'needles!]

I have just been to a small locally given presentation on this and been told it will soon be a compulsary part of a RN's personal development plan to be actively involved in this.

To me it seems more like a kinda a counselling,and the name misrepresents it. Still not sure what it is all about other than supporting staff.

Can anyone give me more insight into this, I do believe it is going to become an important part of practice.

[Fonenurse]

We practised clinical supervision when I worked at NHS Direct, and we were given reflective time together in our 'on duty' time. Particularly as a new telephone triage nurse I found this extremely beneficial - to learn from those more experienced or even to pass on specialist knowledge myself. I'd advocate this always as a good way to learn and to offer and gain support from colleagues.

[herring_RN, ASN, BSN]

you are right, i'm in california where the term is in our practice act.

clearly if means something very different.

we seem to do what you and elkpark refer to in a less formal way.

more experienced nurses informally mentor new nurses, or those new to our specialty.

we are often then friends for life.

i like having a more formal process without the threat of being embarrassed or thought less of by a manager.

[karenG]

I think clinical supervision has been around for many years; we just called it something different. As I stated earlier, I remember going to the pub after a terrible shift and having a few beers while talking about the shift and how I could have done things better.. and certainly thats how I view clinical support (much better term, IMHO. supervision sounds so awful!). I've been a supervisor for 10yrs now, and have both a group of nurses and individual nurses who come for support. The groups are easy to run, I act as a referee most of the time while everyone chips in and talks around all sorts of issues. for me, the best thing about this is that is supported by our employers, they allow nurses protected time to do this. so little problems dont become big ones, and we hopefully avoid any major ones! its a good thing in general but I can see that it could be used to check up on nurses; I dont have to report back to anyone about what was discussed, only say who attended and how long the session was. so, when it works, it works well.