Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-jkksz Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-27T05:45:10.588Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

Developing and implementing ‘meta-supervision’ for mental health nursing staff supervisees: opportunities and challenges

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  14 October 2016

Niels Buus*
Affiliation:
Faculty of Nursing and Midwifery, University of Sydney and St. Vincent's Hospital Sydney, Australia
Lisa Lynch
Affiliation:
Chief of Clinical & Site Operations, Yarra Ranges & Program Director Women & Children Eastern Health, Victoria, Australia
Henrik Gonge
Affiliation:
Odense University Hospital, Research Unit of Mental Health, Odense, Denmark
*
*Author for correspondence: Dr N. Buus, Sydney Nursing School. The University of Sydney. 88, Mallet Street, Camperdown, NSW 2050, Australia (niels.buus@sydney.edu.au).

Abstract

This paper reports from a study of an intervention aimed at strengthening mental health nursing staff supervision. We developed and tested a short-term group-based meta-supervision intervention as a supplement to usual supervision. The intervention drew on action learning principles to activate and inspire supervisees to develop strategies for influencing their own supervision practices. The core ‘meta-supervisory’ process was organized round participants’ reflections on the possible benefits of supervision, their perceived barriers to realizing the benefits, and the articulation of concrete actions to overcome the barriers. In this paper, we introduce previously reported findings from the study and present two novel supplementary analyses of data from the meta-supervision process. First, we analyse a transcript of an audio recording made during the intervention, which illustrates how supervisees generate empowering psychosocial resources through the group processes. Second, we analyse supervisees’ paraphrased accounts of barriers to effective supervision and their accounts of personal projects to overcome the barriers. Barriers ‘outside’ the supervision setting primarily inspired projects aimed at creating structural change, whereas barriers ‘inside’ the supervision setting inspired projects aimed at creating individual change. The meta-supervision intervention was effective in increasing participation in supervision, but it shared the same problems of resistance and reluctance as often observed in supervision in general. In the discussion, we compare our ‘bottom-up’ approach to activating supervisees and implementing supervision practices with ‘top-down’ approaches. The meta-supervision intervention illustrated the importance of engaging supervisees in their own supervision and suggested how it can have both individual and organizational benefits.

Type
Special Issue: International Developments in Supporting and Developing CBT Supervisors
Copyright
Copyright © British Association for Behavioural and Cognitive Psychotherapies 2016 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Recommended follow-up reading

Buus, N, Cassedy, P, Gonge, H (2013). Developing a manual for strengthening mental health nurses’ clinical supervision. Issues in Mental Health Nursing 34, 344349.Google Scholar
Gonge, H, Buus, N (2015). Is it possible to strengthen psychiatric nursing staff's clinical supervision? RCT of a meta-supervision intervention. Journal of Advanced Nursing 71, 909921.Google Scholar

References

Barney, ST, Andersen, MB, Riggs, CA (1996). Supervision in sport psychology: some recommendations for practicum training. Journal of Applied Sport Psychology 8, 200217.Google Scholar
Brinkmann, S, Kvale, S (2014). InterViews: Learning the Craft of Qualitative Research Interviewing, 3rd edn. Thousand Oaks: Sage.Google Scholar
Buus, N, Angel, S, Traynor, M, Gonge, H (2010). Psychiatric hospital nursing staff's experiences of participating in group-based clinical supervision: an interview study. Issues in Mental Health Nursing 31, 654661.Google Scholar
Buus, N, Angel, S, Traynor, M, Gonge, H (2011). Psychiatric nursing staff members’ reflections on participating in group-based clinical supervision: a semistructured interview study. International Journal of Mental Health Nursing 20, 95101.Google Scholar
Buus, N, Cassedy, P, Gonge, H (2013). Developing a manual for strengthening mental health nurses’ clinical supervision. Issues in Mental Health Nursing 34, 344349.Google Scholar
Buus, N, Gonge, H (2009). Empirical studies of clinical supervision in psychiatric nursing: a systematic literature review and methodological critique. International Journal of Mental Health Nursing 18, 250264.Google Scholar
Buus, N, Gonge, H (2012). Participation and benefits of clinical supervision of psychiatric nursing staff [in Danish]. Klinisk Sygepleje 26, 3548.Google Scholar
Cutcliffe, JR (2011). An alternative training approach on clinical supervision. In: Routledge Handbook of Clinical Supervision (ed. Cutcliffe, J. R., Hyrkäs, K. & Fowler, J.), pp. 3550. Abingdon: Routledge.Google Scholar
Daly, J, Speedy, S, Jackson, D (2004). Nursing Leadership. Marrickville: Elsevier.Google Scholar
Driscoll, J (2000). Practicing Clinical Supervision: A Reflective Approach. London: Ballière-Tindall.Google Scholar
Gonge, H, Buus, N (2010). Individual and workplace factors that influence psychiatric nursing staff's participation in clinical supervision: a survey study and prospective longitudinal registration. Issues in Mental Health Nursing 31, 345354.Google Scholar
Gonge, H, Buus, N (2011). Model for investigating the benefits of clinical supervision in psychiatric nursing: a survey study. International Journal of Mental Health Nursing 20, 102111.Google Scholar
Gonge, H, Buus, N (2015). Is it possible to strengthen psychiatric nursing staff's clinical supervision? RCT of a meta-supervision intervention. Journal of Advanced Nursing 71, 909921.Google Scholar
Grossman, S, Valiga, TM (2013). The New Leadership Challenge. Creating the Future of Nursing. Philadelphia: F. A. Davies.Google Scholar
Hancox, K, Lynch, L, Happell, B, Biondo, S (2004). An evaluation of an educational program for clinical supervision. International Journal of Mental Health Nursing 13, 198203.Google Scholar
Hawkins, P, Shohet, R (2006). Supervision in the Helping Professions, 2nd edn. Maidenhead: Open University Press.Google Scholar
Hutchby, I, Wooffitt, R (2008). Conversation Analysis, 2nd edn. Cambridge: Polity Press.Google Scholar
Johnston, LH, Milne, D (2012). How do supervisee's learn during supervision? A grounded theory study of the perceived developmental process. The Cognitive Behaviour Therapist 5, 123.Google Scholar
Lynch, L, Hancox, K, Happell, B, Parker, J (2008). Clinical Supervision for Nurses. Chichester: Wiley-Blackwell.Google Scholar
Milne, DL, Reiser, R (2016). Supporting our supervisors: sending out an SOS. The Cognitive Behaviour Therapist. doi:10.1017/S1754470X15000616.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Newman, CF (2013). Training cognitive behavioral therapy supervisors: didactics, simulated practice, and ‘meta-Supervision’. Journal of Cognitivepsychotherapy 27, 518.Google Scholar
Padesky, CA (1996). Developing cognitive therapist competency: teaching and supervision models. In: Frontiers of Cognitive Therapy (ed. Salkovskis, P. M.), pp. 266292. New York: The Guilford Press.Google Scholar
Wellington, JJ (2010). Making Supervision Work for You. Los Angeles: Sage.Google Scholar
Submit a response

Comments

No Comments have been published for this article.