Empirical studies of clinical supervision in psychiatric nursing: A systematic literature review and methodological critique

Abstract

The objective of this paper was to systematically review and critically evaluate all English language research papers reporting empirical studies of clinical supervision in psychiatric nursing. The first part of the search strategy was a combination of brief and building block strategies in the PubMed, CINAHL, and PsycINFO databases. The second part was a citation pearl growing strategy with reviews of 179 reference lists. In total, the search strategy demonstrated a low level of precision and a high level of recall. Thirty four articles met the criteria of the review and were systematically evaluated using three checklists. The findings were summarized by using a new checklist with nine overall questions regarding the studies' design, methods, findings, and limitations. The studies were categorized as: (i) effect studies; (ii) survey studies; (iii) interview studies; and (iv) case studies. In general, the studies were relatively small scale; they used relatively new and basic methods for data collection and analysis, and rarely included sufficient strategies for identifying confounding factors or how the researchers' preconceptions influenced the analyses. Empirical research of clinical supervision in psychiatric nursing was characterized by a basic lack of agreement about which models and instruments to use. Challenges and recommendations for future research are discussed. Clinical supervision in psychiatric nursing was commonly perceived as a good thing, but there was limited empirical evidence supporting this claim.

Towards a Consensus of a Competency Framework for Clinical Supervision in Nursing: Knowledge, Attitudes, and Skills

“…According to this model the supervisor needs to possess and communicate certain qualities (in addition to possessing knowledge and skills) in order to facilitate growth in the supervisee (see Appendix). Similarly, Proctor's model (1987), one of the most frequently cited CS models, at least in the U.K. nursing press (see, for example, Faugier & Butterworth, 1994;Jones, 1995;Cutcliffe & Proctor, 1998;Bartle, 2000;Cottrell, 2001;Davey, Desousa, Robinson, & Murrells, 2006;Buus & Gonge, 2009) highlights a variety of supervisor competencies. Supervisors can focus on all or any one of three functions.…”

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

“…The methodological difficulties of attributing practitioner change (e.g., level of skills, knowledge, beliefs, expectations or attitudes) following the delivery of clinical supervision interventions have been extensively noted in the literature (Bambling, 2000;Bishop, 2007;Buus & Gonge, 2009;). This made the selection of the instruments an important consideration in the design of this phase of the research.…”

“…While clinical supervision is being increasingly adopted as a standard practice within health services (Clinical Education and Training Institute, 2011;Council of Australian Governments, 2008), uncertainty remains about the outcomes of supervision, including those related to reduction in intention to leave (Buus & Gonge, 2009;Watkins & Milne, 2014). Low job satisfaction is a significant predictor of increased turnover (Wilson, 2015), however clinical supervision has been linked to both high and low job satisfaction (Koivu et al, 2012b).…”

“…Hence, within Australia there has been a national drive to implement clinical supervision across public health services (Health Workforce Australia, 2010). However, at the same time that clinical supervision is being increasingly adopted as a standard practice within health services (Clinical Education and Training Institute, 2011;Council of Australian Governments, 2008), uncertainty remains about the outcomes of supervision, including whether it is an effective mechanism for improving the safety and quality of health services (Buus & Gonge, 2009;Watkins & Milne, 2014). While the clinical supervision literature is considerable, there is a lack of agreement about what constitutes the practice of clinical supervision (Lynch, Happell, & Sharrock, 2008) and there have been a limited number of studies investigating clinical supervision outcomes (Carpenter et al, 2013).…”

A Critical Examination of the Experience of being a Gay Officer in the Masculinized Industry of Law Enforcement

“…Both structured and systematic literature review methods aim to classify consistent trends and issues across literature indexed in multiple electronic databases. However, Rocco et al's (2003) process enlists steps specifically designed for the exploration of new concepts, whereas systematic literature reviews may focus on new concepts but are often also used to assess the quality, measures, and (mostly) quantifiable results of studies (i.e., Buus & Gonge, 2009). The process used in the present research involved one analytical stage to find and investigate relevant literature.…”