Learning from the professional midwifery advocate role to revise clinical supervision in nursing

Abstract

Nursing has lacked a professional voice in the workplace, which contributes to delays in recognising and addressing patient safety concerns, as identified by national reviews into patient care failings. Nurses often lack structured or consistent approaches to clinical supervision, with poor access to real-time professional and personal support and development. In 2017, midwifery reformed its supervision model, with the change from supervisors of midwives to professional midwifery advocates. This new model links continuous quality improvement, staff wellbeing, patient experience and education to improve care. Adopting this approach of professional advocacy in nursing under national leadership to continuously develop self-learning, professional confidence and communication skills in a structured way could benefit nursing. This articles discusses the potential advantages of this model over the current nursing clinical supervision approach.