In what ways might group clinical supervision affect the development of resilience in hospice nurses?

BACKGROUND: Resilience is important to sustain hospice nurses through a challenging career. Clinical supervision is a commonly cited support strategy, but there is limited evidence which focuses on its influence on the development of resilience in hospice nurses. AIMS: To explore how group clinical supervision might affect the development of resilience in hospice nurses. METHOD: A pragmatic approach and mixed methods research design was employed. Quantitative questionnaire data and qualitative focus group data were collected from community hospice nurses participating in group clinical supervision. FINDINGS: The findings identified the importance of an effective group reflective process on the benefits to be gained from clinical supervision. Clinical supervision was found to affect the development of resilience by developing confidence at work, regulating emotions, offering a coping strategy, managing expectations, and developing self-awareness. This was dependent upon individual preference and experience, the local organisational context, and wider social and political factors. CONCLUSION: This research contributes insight into group clinical supervision as an intervention to support resilience in hospice nurses. It offers recommendations for practice, to enhance the development of resilience through clinical supervision, and recommendations for future research.

The concept of reflection in nursing: qualitative findings on student and teacher perspectives.

BACKGROUND AND AIM: This study sought to increase the understanding of the concept of reflection within nursing. The research focused on the social construction of reflection through a post-registration, palliative care programme in the United Kingdom (UK). DESIGN AND PARTICIPANTS: An interpretive ethnographic approach was used to study reflection from the perspective of students and teachers, whilst paying attention to local organisational, contextual and cultural issues. METHODS: Data collection included: observations of teaching and learning interactions, interviews, extracts from programme documentation and student reflective learning contracts (RLCs). FINDINGS: Findings identified a learning culture committed to reflection as a valuable way of helping nurses make sense of their practice. Similar to Barnett's (1997) concept of 'critical being', students and teachers described reflection as a way of 'being' rather than simply 'thinking' or 'doing', since reflection intertwined propositional, affective and active elements. This process of reflective 'being' was connected with a humanistic approach to nursing, which emphasises the importance of actively using and expressing oneself in order to care for people. CONCLUSION: This paper contributes empirical knowledge on the meaning of reflection in nursing regarding: teachers' and students' perspectives, reflection as a way to make sense of practice, and reflection as a way of 'being' and its association with humanistic nursing.