Demystifying supervision for the wellbeing of nurses

This is the first posting in a series on the importance of supervision.

The Nursing and Midwifery council (NMC) state that new employees should have a comprehensive induction, additional training and ‘supervision’. Within the NMC Code of professional standards of practice (2018) we see an emphasis on leadership to ‘make sure people’s wellbeing is protected’. In short there is a focus on working within a best evidence framework and to maximise safe outcomes for patients. It is therefore important to consider ways in which to support patients by supporting staff, clinical supervision and its implementation can promote this ethos. A suitable supervisory framework can only help to promote the NMC (2018) code, by supporting wellbeing through supervision. There is extensive direction on the use of supervision for students, but it is equally important for all trained staff. Interestingly the Parliamentary and Health service Ombudsman (2013) reporting on the use of supervision for midwives highlighted that ‘there is no doubt that access to good clinical supervision is essential for all healthcare professionals’, however the report also states that the implementation of supervision should be for the employer and not the regulator. This means clinical supervision for a great many of the professionals regardless of the field of nursing may not be routinely incorporated into practice. This is supported by the Florence Nightingale foundation (2022) which states that a framework for the delivery of high quality clinical supervision has still not been agreed much less implemented. The Care Quality Commission (CQC) (2015) stipulates that staff need to receive profession development, training and where required support, appraisal and supervision. So, we can see that clinical supervision is deemed to be important and recommended not only by the NMC but the CQC.