Clinical supervision, burnout and intent to leave: an Australian mixed methods study of community-based allied health professionals

Abstract

ObjectiveClinical supervision is widely recognised for providing professional support, professional development and clinical governance for healthcare workers. Despite the growing uptake of clinical supervision, there have been few studies about the effectiveness of supervision for allied health professionals and fewer studies conducted within the Australian health context. This study aims to identify the perceived effectiveness of clinical supervision of allied health professionals in an Australian metropolitan community health setting. The study also sought to identify those factors that contribute to effectiveness and the relationship between clinical supervision effectiveness, burnout and intention to leave, as well as any profession-specific differences. MethodologyThe research has a two-phase, explanatory-sequential, mixed methods design. In Study 1, participants (n = 82) anonymously completed an on-line questionnaire, administered through the health service's intranet at 8 months post-implementation of the intervention, a structured model of clinical supervision. Study 2, commenced 12 months postimplementation and comprised several focus groups (n = 26), separately attended by supervisees (n = 15), and supervisors (n = 11). The sample was drawn from the population of allied health professionals (N = 120) who were receiving or providing supervision within the study location.The on-line questionnaire sought demographic data, work history and the number and length of supervision sessions. Clinical supervision effectiveness was operationalised using the Manchester Clinical Supervision Scale-26 (MCSS-26©); burnout was measured using the Maslach Burnout Inventory; and intention to leave was operationalised using the Intent to Leave Scale. ResultsEighty-two allied health professionals participated in Study 1, resulting in a 68% response rate. Ages ranged from 24 to 66 years, and females accounted for 89% (n = 71) of all respondents. The professions of occupational therapy, physiotherapy and social work together comprised 73% of the total number of participants. Twenty-six allied health ii professionals participated in the five focus groups of Study 2. All participants were female, with 81% belonging to the professions of occupational therapy, physiotherapy and social work.Overall, clinical supervision was perceived as effective. In the main, supervisee's responses illustrated that supervision provided effective professional support, education and guidance for professional practice.'Time', as well as specific procedural factors, were found to be important in relation to Significant associations were found between clinical supervision effectiveness and burnout and intention to leave. Highly efficacious supervision was significantly and negatively associated with Emotional Exhaustion and Depersonalization. In addition, higher scores on "Finding Time" were significantly correlated with lower scores of Emotional Exhaustion.Effective supervision was significantly and positively associated with Personal Accomp...

Effective clinical supervision of allied health professionals: a mixed methods study

“…The MCSS-26 results showed that finding time was a barrier to effective clinical supervision and is consistent with previous findings [7, 11, 12, 14–17]. Allied health professionals who report difficulty finding time for clinical supervision also report higher levels of emotional exhaustion [47]. Hence, this issue is a concern for allied health departments and may have wider implications including a negative impact on patient care [10].…”

Impact of clinical supervision on healthcare organisational outcomes: A mixed methods systematic review

“…Twenty-seven quantitative , two qualitative [49,50] and three mixed methods studies [51][52][53] were included in the review. Fifteen studies used a randomised controlled (n = 1) [22] or quasi-experimental design (n = 14) [23][24][25][26][27][28][29][30][31][32][33][34][35]51] to establish the effect of clinical supervision on organisational outcomes.…”

“…Fifteen studies used a randomised controlled (n = 1) [22] or quasi-experimental design (n = 14) [23][24][25][26][27][28][29][30][31][32][33][34][35]51] to establish the effect of clinical supervision on organisational outcomes. Eight studies investigated the association between effectiveness of clinical supervision and organisational outcomes [37][38][39][40][41][42][43]52]. Eight studies investigated the association between the effectiveness of the supervisor and organisational outcomes [32,36,39,41,43,45,46,48].…”

“…Two studies used a cross sectional survey study design to measure perceptions of effect of clinical supervision on organisational outcomes [44,47]. Four studies [49][50][51][52] used a qualitative descriptive design, with either individual [49][50][51] or focus group [52], semi structured interviews as the method of data collection. The qualitative component of one study [53] applied the grounded theory methodology, using a qualitative questionnaire for data collection.…”

“…The qualitative component of one study [53] applied the grounded theory methodology, using a qualitative questionnaire for data collection. Ten studies were published in the 1990s [23,25,26,30,34,[45][46][47][48][49], six studies were published in the 2000s [24,28,35,39,41,43], and 16 studies were published in the 2010s [22, 27, 29, 31, 32, 33, 36-38, 40, 42, 44, 50-53] with seven of these published in the last 5 years [27,37,40,[50][51][52][53].…”