Clinical supervision: exploration of attitudes in mental health inpatient units from a leadership perspective

Clinical Supervision has been identified as a means to support and enhance professional development and is recommended for all mental health nurses. However, it continues to have limited uptake in some mental health services, particularly within inpatient units. There is also confusion about what actually constitutes clinical supervision which is often misguidedly seen as line management supervision. One factor that has been identified as increasing the uptake or implementation of clinical supervision in inpatient units has been strong management support for clinical supervision practice (Lynch, Hancox, Happell, & Parker, 2008). The aims and objectives of the research project were to explore the knowledge, understanding of and attitudes towards clinical supervision of the senior clinical leaders of the inpatient mental health units of a large metropolitan public mental health service, located in Melbourne. Data collected included participants details, the clinical leaders' participation in having their own clinical supervision and their support of staff in taking up clinical supervision. The researcher was interested in the individual's experience of clinical supervision and hence used hermeneutic phenomenology methodology and employed individual interviews as the primary method of capturing the data. The preliminary results from this research will be presented with particular focus on the enablers and barriers to the uptake of clinical supervision practice in mental health inpatient units from a leadership perspective. The results will inform collaboration between senior clinical leaders and the practice development team to increase the uptake of clinical supervision in inpatient units.