Maria Gustavsson and Ann-Charlotte Bivall
This article aims to provide a deeper understanding of the challenges clinical supervisors’ experience when supervising students’ professional learning in the workplace.
Abstract
Purpose
This article aims to provide a deeper understanding of the challenges clinical supervisors’ experience when supervising students’ professional learning in the workplace.
Design/methodology/approach
Qualitative interviews were conducted with 13 healthcare professionals, who are experienced clinical supervisors. They were employed either in a hospital ward or in one of two municipal care units.
Findings
The findings showed that clinical supervisors must navigate a complex landscape of challenges to ensure students’ professional learning. They had to balance their regular duties with the time and effort required for supervision. Prominent challenges were ensuring students met their learning objectives and determining when to allow students to handle tasks independently. The supervisors also faced challenges that were beyond their control. Their workplace conditions were not designed to accommodate students effectively. They struggled with negative attitudes from colleagues towards student supervision and they wanted the clinic managers to be more involved. The gap between the university’s educational demands and the realities of the workplace also presented supervisors with a significant challenge.
Originality/value
Apart from unique empirical material depicting clinical supervisors’ experiences of student supervision, the value of this study lies in the recommendation that supervisors have clear requirements from higher educational institutions, but of equal importance is that these requirements align with the conditions in the workplace. Further studies are necessary to understand the role that workplace conditions play for clinical supervisors in creating supportive learning environments that facilitate students in their journey to becoming established professionals.
Details
Keywords
Ann-Charlotte Bivall, Maria Gustavsson and Annika Lindh Falk
Clinical placement is an important formalised student activity for linking healthcare education and healthcare practices. The purpose of this study is to investigate the…
Abstract
Purpose
Clinical placement is an important formalised student activity for linking healthcare education and healthcare practices. The purpose of this study is to investigate the organising of clinical placements by examining conditions for collaboration between higher education and healthcare organisations.
Design/methodology/approach
The study is based on interviews with central actors at a university and two healthcare organisations with official duties of organising clinical placements.
Findings
The findings indicate that collaboration in the organising of clinical placements is a complex matter of interconnected actors in different organisational positions, at both strategic and operative levels. The university and the healthcare organisations approached the clinical placement with a shared commitment.
Practical implications
The findings provide important guidance for improving collaboration in the organising of clinical placements. This may have an impact on how contextual conditions of the educational framing and daily healthcare practices are viewed and how the interdependency between the long-term strategic issues and the short-term needs of healthcare organisations is approached.
Originality/value
This research emphasises the need for careful consideration of the collaborative practices on an organisational level between higher education and healthcare organisations as different needs, motives and logics have to be considered.