Clinical Supervision and the Use of a Three-Tiered Hierarchical Approach to Evaluate Student Clinician Performance

Abstract

Effective university clinical supervision requires the clinical instructor to modify supervisory style based on the student clinician's skill level, experience, and learning style. In addition, clinical education programs provide clinical instructors with an evaluation tool to assess the supervisee's clinical performance. This article reviews the supervisory process and models for modifying supervisory styles and describes various evaluation tools that can be used to evaluate clinical skills. A clinical evaluation tool is then introduced that emphasizes clinical proficiency rather than type of clinical supervision. The tool incorporates hierarchical expectations when evaluating student clinician practicum knowledge and skills across three levels of student clinicians: beginning, intermediate, and advanced. Information is provided about the content of the three-tiered hierarchical evaluation tool and the process used to assess clinical performance. Qualitative feedback from surveys completed by clinical instructors and student clinicians about the tool is reviewed.