The nature of clinical supervision in psychiatric nursing: a survey of clinical specialists

There is a growing body of theory and research on clinical supervision within other mental health disciplines; however, there has been little study of clinical supervision within psychiatric mental health nursing. This article reports the results of a survey of 61 psychiatric mental health specialists to determine their attitudes toward selected supervisory issues. Two-thirds of the respondents had received further supervision beyond the master's degree, one-half reported a personal psychotherapy experience, and one-half were certified in psychiatric mental health nursing. There were significant differences of opinion between clinical nurse specialists who were certified and those who were not and between those who reported a personal therapy experience and those who did not. The authors suggest that more attention be paid to the development of curriculum content regarding clinical supervision in graduate nursing programs. In addition, they recommend further research on the topic of clinical supervision in psychiatric mental health nursing.