How to identify a suitable supervisor

Given that the supervision relationship is based on mutual trust and respect, getting the right supervisor is crucial to facilitate high quality interactions that deliver meaningful benefits. Supervisees should be able to choose their own supervisor for all types of supervision other than management.  Dietitians early in their career (especially NQP), the support workforce and those new to a service may require help to identify an appropriate supervisor and may initially require one to be allocated to them.

As practice supervision is your choice and supervisee led, the selection for this should be based on identifying someone who can support you to meet your required learning need. The choice of supervisor, therefore, needs to be relevant and applicable to the area of practice and the function of the supervision being provided. This doesn’t necessarily mean that they need to be working in the same clinical speciality or profession (except for those in mental health settings that require profession specific supervision). What you are getting from each supervision element will depend on the learning needs that you have identified and the Levels of supervision required to meet that learning need. For example, if you are working as an experienced dietitian with line management responsibilities, you may identify that you would benefit from supervision to develop your leadership skills. In which case you may look for supervision from a more experienced leader. They may work in a different dietetic speciality or even be from a different profession to you.

Where the supervisor is from a different profession or specialist area, it would be expected that they understand the profession and role, that they are aware of the scope of that role and identify the limitation to the supervision they can provide. For example, if the dietitian supervisee is a non-medical prescriber and the supervisor is not, then there needs to be recognition that supervision relating to prescribing cannot be part of the agreement. In this instance, the expectation is that the supervisor can recognise that this is beyond their scope of practice and advice from a more appropriate supervisor for that element should be sought.

Sometimes dietitians early in their career are asked to supervise members of the support workforce, particularly where delegating care while working closely with them. While this can be appropriate, it is important to recognise that at this stage of your career, you are likely to have had minimal exposure to supervision yourself which may make it difficult to confidently supervise others. As with any task, you should only be supervising others if you have the relevant knowledge and skills to ensure that you continue to practice within your scope. Dietitians who are providing practice supervision to the support workforce should read the relevant section in this document under Dietetic Support Workforce.  

As well as the key skills and knowledge developed through training and experience (see Training for supervisors), supervisors should demonstrate the following:

• be aware of individual learning styles and adapt accordingly
• be competent and have the relevant knowledge and experience in the area being supervised
• understand relevant guidelines / policies and procedures
• recognise own scope of practice and limitations of the supervision arrangement
• good communication and active listening skills
• be culturally competent
• maintain confidentiality
• be actively engaged in their own supervision

It must be remembered that what constitutes good quality supervision is personally defined as every individual will have a different perspective. Open and transparent dialogue between the supervisor and supervisee, and regularly reviewing the supervision agreement, will help maintain the quality.  

Supporting people with learning differences

To provide a supportive and effective supervision environment for all, there needs to be an ability to recognise and learn about an individual’s learning style and learning differences. Supervisors may need to modify their methods accordingly and will need to be adaptable based on constructive feedback from the supervisee. Further information can be seen on the HCPC website here1.