The Developmental Process of Clinical Supervisors - Essay Example

The Developmental Process of Clinical Supervisors Abstract Supervision exhibits diverse and dynamic practices, all of which are tailored towards the achievement of specific goals and objectives. The interaction between supervisors and their supervisees is characterized by common interests that are drawn from both parties. The ultimate concern is to enhance personal development, professional growth, and career competitiveness by having both supervisors and supervisees play their respective roles in the light of the underlying supervisory practices. This paper presents a case of supervision in the clinical setting. Newly qualified dentists, also known as foundation dentists, are supervised for a period of one year. Differentiated teaching and training methods are employed in the supervision process, constituting supervisory practices that are designed to enhance the growth and development of foundation dentists in their line of professionalism. Introduction Supervision is an extensive practice that applies and fits various contexts differently. In the clinical setting, the ultimate objective of supervision is to enhance the knowledge and skill base of the supervisee. In so doing, the practitioner realizes all-round competitiveness in his/her line of professionalism. In order to achieve the desired results, the adopted supervisory practices should fit the relationship between the supervisor and the supervisee. Over and above this, the supervision process has to be effective, an aspect that is greatly influenced by the supervisor. Regardless of the context within which the supervisor and the supervisee interact, the supervisor should discharge his/her role effectively. In order to ensure that the supervisory process runs smoothly, a functional relationship has to be established between the parties involved. Failure to do this could often result in complexities that are likely to derail the entire process. In the clinical context, the situation is even more critical due to the factoring in of the patients or clients. Clinical practitioners do not only have to worry about the supervisor and the supervisee, but also the patient or client who is essentially the central concern in the whole process. Supervision in the clinical setting develops the supervisee and consequently impacts on other parties, say the patients or clients. Health care provision is driven by health care practitioners for the benefit of patients and clients. The clinical setting allows these parties to interact in differentiated ways and through variant systems and processes. However, the common denominator is the clinical setup is not complete without them. Effective supervision in this line allows the entire clinical setting to install knowledgeable and skilled practitioners. This is done by ensuring that supervisors and supervisees relate and work together to achieve the desired goals and objectives of supervision. As earlier mentioned, the role played by supervisors is critical in influencing supervisory practices. The role played by supervisors entails consultation, support and guidance, mentoring, teaching, evaluating, counselling, modelling, and creating the learning relationship (Humphrey and Stokes, 2000, p.189). All these practices combined allow the supervisee to grow, develop, and become professionally competitive for the benefit of the entire clinical fraternity. In this respect, supervision offers the supervisee a fundamental opportunity to advance knowledge, skills, and professional practice. Case of Supervision Newly qualified clinical practitioners require adequate time, means, and ways to familiarize and accustom to the actual environment of practice. The most convenient and effective way is to have newly qualified practitioners supervised as they discharge their duties and responsibilities. In this respect, the supervisors play a critical role in monitoring, supporting, teaching, and training supervisees on the most appropriate and effective way to link theory, knowledge, and skills to the actual clinical practice (Neufeldt, 2004). Personally, playing a supervisory role in the clinical context has been a teach-and-learn experience. In a clinical context, supervision takes differentiated approaches relative to the actual clinical field in question. My supervisory responsibility in the clinical setting falls under the dental practice. Specifically, I supervise newly qualified dentists, commonly referred to as foundation dentists. The supervision program runs for up to one year, a period within which I work with dental practitioners who are newly integrated into the practice. Numerous teaching and training methods are employed throughout the year. The idea is to make use of supervisory practices that suit the entire team on board. Most importantly, service delivery is of central concern in the entire supervision process. This is because the clinical setting is characterized by different stakeholders, all of which exhibit variant needs. These needs are addressed by a common team, often made up of health care practitioners and providers. For this reason, the duties and responsibilities discharged by both supervisors and supervisees influence the entire clinical setting. My role as a foundation dentists’ supervisor is to ensure that all supervisees link theory, knowledge, and skills to the dental practice. The placement of foundation dentists in the actual practice does not imply that they can automatically undertake their duties and responsibilities effectively. The teaching and learning environment is critically different from the clinical setting where the actual practice is undertaken. For this reason, supervision of newly qualified dentists, or rather foundation dentists, becomes fundamental. Clinical supervision is driven by three processes, namely: monitoring, support, and learning (Page and Wosket, 2007, p.104). Personally, I do not ignore these processes due to the fact that they enhance the primary goals and objectives of supervision. The supervisee is monitored by having his/her duties and responsibilities overseen by the supervisor. In other words, the supervisee actually undertakes clinical practice, but the supervisor oversees what the supervisee does. This is the role I play for a period of one year after foundation dentists get their placement in the dental practice. Support comes in handy in the supervisory process. The working environment is different from the classroom setting. In other words, the teaching and learning environment informs what the foundation dentists do in their placement in the clinical context. Through teaching and learning, they gain knowledge and skills that foster their ability to work as qualified clinical practitioners. However, the ability to handle dental practice is not automatically instilled by the medical school. As a result, supervision is factored in to link medical school training to the dental practice within the clinical setting. This aspect encompasses the support process, where I support my supervisees to accustom to the dental practice based on their medical school training. The learning process crowns the supervision process by allowing supervisees to gain insights that were previously unclear or unknown to them. In other words, supervision allows me, the supervisor, to teach and train my supervisees. It is important to highlight that the teaching and training referred to at this point relates to that what enhances the supervisees’ knowledge and skill level relative to their professional practice. In this case, the supervisor is more skilled and experienced in the actual practice, an aspect that allows the less-advanced foundation dentists to learn how to make their practice more effective (Pierce, 2004). The desired results of the supervisory program are achieved through effective supervision. In order to realize effective supervisory practices, I have to initiate this effectiveness as a supervisor. This means that if I fail to be effective in my duties as a supervisor, then the entire process is as well prone to failure. To ensure that chances of failure are alleviated, numerous and differentiated teaching and training methods are employed throughout the supervision period. Formal supervision is one of the primary methods employed in the supervision process. In this line, my relationship with the supervisees is strictly professional. The interaction herein occurs within the provisions that govern dental practice in the clinical context. Alongside this method, an informal aspect of supervision is employed. This is done to minimize the limits that formal supervision imposes between the parties involved. However, the code of conduct for supervisory practices is upheld, and supervisor-supervisee relations remain governed by the rules and regulations stipulated in the supervisory program. Case-based assessment is another teaching and training method that I employ in undertaking my supervisory role, duties, and responsibilities. The combination of the highlighted methods entails informing, supporting, evaluating, observing, training, and educating for supervision purposes (Van Ooijen, 2009, p.71). My responsibility in this line requires that I foster first-hand experience to all the supervisees within the provided one year period. In the process, I have developed the supervisees as individual practitioners, enhanced their professional growth, and provided them with an opportunity to advance their experience in dental practice, thus allowing them to enhance their professional and career competitiveness based on their knowledge and skills. Discussion The above case presents a supervision scenario in a clinical context. Competence in the clinical setting is based on practice experience that is completed by medical training, knowledge, and skills. The supervisory practices adopted to enhance foundation dentists’ experiences in their practice mould and build their overall growth and development, in and out of the working environment. One of the highlighted aspects is to ensure that the foundation dentists are adequately informed. In this respect, I ensure that these newly qualified dentists understand and practice all that appertains to dental practice. As earlier mentioned, support is critical across the entire supervisory period. It ensures that foundation dentists remain in the right track as far as their roles, duties, and responsibilities are concerned. Moreover, having advanced and experienced supervisors work with less-advanced and less-experienced supervisees ensure that supervisees’ practices are overseen by the supervisors (Baker, Exum, and Tyler, 2002, p.19-23). In so doing, the supervisees are placed in a position where they can work their way up the professional ladder with the help of the supervisor. In the process of supervision, evaluation cannot be ignored. Performance is essential to monitor, especially in the event that there are goals and objectives set for the supervisees to achieve at the end of the supervisory program. I undertake performance evaluation for every supervisee from time to time, for the purpose of ensuring that the desired goals and objectives of supervision are met. Basically, the process is characterized by milestones that measure the extent to which the primary goals and objectives have been met. Although I oversee supervisees’ practice in the dental setting across the one year supervisory period, the idea is to ensure that their position in dental practice tomorrow is better than that of today. This translates to a more competitive practice tomorrow as compared to the current situation. In order to monitor these and more changes over time, observation becomes vital. Within the supervisory process, there are provisions to make an observation of the foundation dentists. This comes after informing, supporting, and evaluating the supervisees’ individual dental practice. By making the observations, I gain insights in regard to the specific supervisory practices that need to be changed or improved in order to enhance a positive result relative to the supervision process. The supervisory process is not complete without training and education (Ellis, Krengel, and Beck, 2002, p.114). Although the foundation dentists qualify after successfully completing their medical training, the supervisory process provides another opportunity for training and education. In the actual clinical practice, however, the training and education aspect is more practice-oriented as opposed to theoretical training. Since knowledge and skills have been gained by this time, the concern is how to apply the said knowledge and skills. This is basically what it entails to train and educate foundation dentists within the dental practice. Achieving the goals and objectives of supervision within the one year period influences the overall success factor of the supervisory program. It takes effective supervision to ensure that every aspect of all the supervisory practices is addressed. Personally, supervision is effective when it successfully gets the supervisees accustomed to the dental practice system. On the same note, supervision practices that enhance patient care and experiences within the clinical setting are essential to maintain. Given the one year period that I work with foundation dentists while under supervision, I structure the supervision process appropriately to ensure that it fits all the foundation dentists on board. This process factors in the strengths and weaknesses of each individual foundation dentist over the one year period of supervision. This ensures that individual differences across supervisees are adequately accounted for. In the process of playing my supervisory role, giving feedback is the most critical factor that I account for. Feedback enables the supervisees to identify the progress they are making in their practice, and whether their performance meets the expectation of the field they work in. As a matter of fact, the given feedback should be clear, direct, and constructive (Tsui, 2005, p.59). Basically, supervision processes and practices can neither be fully operational nor successful if feedback fails to be emphasized. The supervisees derive critical practice information from the supervisor’s feedback, an aspect that I personally ensure it crowns my supervision. Conclusion The clinical setting is characterized by many stakeholders, all of which work to the best interest of their patients or clients. Continued training of new clinical practitioners introduces new lots into the clinical context, while the operations remain relatively the same. In this respect, it becomes vital to accustom the new lots to the actual practice in the clinical context. Supervision plays a critical role in advancing the knowledge, skills, and experience of practice of newly qualified clinical practitioners. This is the same concept that is applied in the supervision of newly qualified dentists, or rather foundation dentists, alongside all other practices that appertain to supervision. Reference List Baker, S. B., Exum, H. A., and Tyler, R. E. (2002). The developmental process of clinical supervisors in training: An investigation of the supervisor complexity model, Counsellor Education & Supervision, 42, 15-30. Ellis, M. V., Krengel, M., and Beck, M. (2002). Testing self-focused attention theory in clinical supervision: Effects of supervisee anxiety and performance, Journal of Counselling Psychology, 49, 101-116. Humphrey, B. and Stokes, J. (2000). The 21st Century Supervisor, HR Magazine, 185-192. Neufeldt, S. A. (2004). Clinical Supervision, Therapist Development and Culturally Sensitive Practice. [Online] Available at: http://www.psychsem.com/clinicalsup.html [Accessed April 01, 2004]. Page, S. and Wosket, V. (2007). Supervising the Counsellor, A Cyclical Model, London: Routledge. Pierce, E. C. (2004). Supervision. [Online] Available at: http://home.san.rr.com/edwardpierce/Supervision%20Contract.htm [Accessed April 02, 2004]. Tsui, M. S. (2005). Social work supervision: Contexts and concepts, Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage. Van Ooijen, E. (2009). Clinical Supervision - A Practical Guide, London: Churchill Livingstone. Read More