Lecturers' accounts of facilitating clinical supervision groups within a pre-registration mental health nursing curriculum

Abstract

In 1994 the Department of Health recommended that nurses be introduced to the process of clinical supervision during pre-registration training. Since then a body of literature has emerged, largely focusing on students' experiences of a variety of training initiatives in supervision. There is however a paucity of literature exploring the experiences of nursing lecturers engaged in such initiatives. This paper reports the findings from one part of a three-year prospective longitudinal study examining mental health students' and lecturers' experiences of group clinical supervision undertaken as part of a pre-registration course. In this part of the study eight mental health nursing lecturers participated in semi-structured individual interviews in which they discussed their experiences of facilitating student supervision groups. Content analysis of the interview data produced eight major categories: 'attitudes to supervision'; 'perceptions of the student experience'; 'preparation and support'; 'approaches to supervision'; 'the "good" supervisor'; 'the lecturer as supervisor'; 'the structure and process of sessions; and 'the content of supervision'. The findings suggest that the idea of undertaking supervision for students is attractive to lecturers. However, several issues need to be addressed if this type of initiative is to be successful in preparing students for their future role as supervisee.