Clinical Supervision And Practice Essay

This essay aims to critically discuss the evidence base for clinical supervision (CS) in mental health care practice. Against the current climate of rapid societal and organisational change in Ireland, mental health care providers are increasingly being challenged to ensure safer higher quality contemporary services based on best practice. It is vital that senior management fosters a culture of CS to assist in this process. The essay will focus on following themes to ensure that it covers supervision practices and assist this quality initiative to be introduced locally. In this regard, this essay explores CS through the lenses of Mental Health Policy and legislation, its functions, the supervision relationship /working alliance Competency

In a report titled “A vision for psychiatric nursing: A shared journey for mental healthcare in Ireland”, the HSE (2012) stressed the need for CS to be available and utilised by all nurses to promote recovery values and principles in clinical practice. It asserts that the process of CS should continue throughout a person’s career. The organisation also asserts that CS should not be limited to individuals when they are only in the clinical practise; it should be promoted even in more advanced management positions, research sector or even education. All these assertions by the HSE are ingrained in nursing literature. One of the main references in promoting the adoption of policies related to CS is Bradshaw et al. (2007) who linked improved outcomes with CS. In the same light, a more recent publication of the HSE - the national supervision guidelines (2015), also states that CS could improve quality of care and staff engagement. The establishment proposes organisational change platforms to accomplish recovery alignment in the mental health service. This ensures compliance with the Mental Health Act (2001) regulations and initiates a responsibility on the HSE to facilitate this. The HSE also has duty of care to ensure the wellbeing of workers. Its scope of practice and associated code provide direction and guidance to mental healthcare professionals on their

These include healthcare employees, service users, and the organisations. From a review of existing literature, the several benefits were identified.
Benefits to mental health care employees
There are several types CS each associated with its benefits and disadvantages. To begin with, clinical supervision is among the most common approaches employed. It involves the use of self-reports and has been recommended by various researchers due to its ability to target individual development. However, it suffers from the lack of group support which is a key feature in group interventions and peer to peer interventions. Secondly, there is triadic supervision which utilises individual supervision methods. It is effective in mitigating the load of the supervisor but lacks only flourished where there is a good fit between supervisory peers. Thirdly, group supervision is one which occurs serially from the initial stage, transition stage, working stage and finally the ending stage. The method is appropriate in fostering group development but may lack in personal growth. According to Cory et al. (2010), maintaining an appropriate balance between personal and group development presents an uphill task. Finally, peer supervision is one that involves groups facing the same experiences and provide an opportunity for professional growth. However, the use of this method is no longer applied by with novice