Clinical supervision

Common words tend to take on special meanings in disciplines such as education and supervision has come to mean a variety of specific things. In some fields, for example, it refers to a process of discussion intended to help the worker maintain detachment from the ‘client’ and their problems. In others it relates to the facilitation of a process of professional development. 1 In anaesthesia we generally understand clinical supervision to be a process by which a specialist ensures that the patient receives proper treatment whilst in the hands of a learner. This guardianship of quality must be conducted in a way that allows the trainee to develop whilst keeping the patient safe. Clinical supervision is distinct from ‘educational supervision’, the process by which the learner&s;s progress is planned, guided and monitored.