Clinical Supervision of Staff Nurses

Abstract

In nursing there is considerable discussion, mostly in the back rooms, that administrative supervision should be replaced by clinical supervision. I have suggested that each clinical supervisor should have an administrative assistant to take care of management details, thereby freeing the supervisor to do clinical supervision. What would it be like? What kind of regular sessions should be set up for orderly and continuing review of the work of the staff nurse with a clinical expert who is the clinical supervisor? With what frequency should these conferences occur? What would be a useful duration, one hour, two hours, or an indeterminate period? What kind of preparation for the conference should be expected of the supervisor and the staff nurse? Does the work situation allow this kind of time and effort? These and many other questions about the best form of clinical supervision are being raised by nurses. I address these questions from an interpersonal standpoint.