Teaching notes

Supervision

Notes from a session run by Julian Maddock, Chaplain at West Middlesex University Hospital

Introduction

• [1] Introduction
• [2] The Tasks of Supervision
• [3] What Supervision Is
• [4] What Supervision Is Not
• [5] Confidentiality
• [6] Supervision in Essence

Supervision helps us to be more aware of what happens in our relationship with those we visit. The aim is to nurture and to make best use of our gifts, skills and abilities.

The focus of supervision is our experiences in our work, looking at this in the light of faith, enabling greater awareness of movements towards and away from God in response to all we have to deal with.

The Tasks of Supervision

The tasks can be divided into three areas:

1. Formative: sharing knowledge and insights; reminders about listening and communication skills; development of self-understanding; appreciating our relationship with God; identifying, clarifying and processing the feelings we experience in relation to the people we visit;
2. Normative: concerning professional standards and ethics;
3. Restorative: a place to discharge feelings; experience support and affirmation and, where appropriate challenge and so enable self-appraisal.

What Supervision Is

Supervision is a relationship that offers support, understanding and encouragement, and that helps us with our blocks to effectiveness and healthy relationships in our work. It is an opportunity to:

• reflect upon ourselves in our ministry;
• chat over what has been happening when we visit people;
• have an outlet for the natural reactions we have to the many difficult and disturbing situations we encounter;
• receive feedback and, where appropriate, guidance and appraisal.

What supervision is not

Supervision is not about:

• evaluating work performance;
• criticism and judgement.

Confidentiality

We undertake to keep confidential the content of what patients, relatives and staff share with us on our visits. However, we work as a team in the Chaplaincy and, with a person's agreement, it is helpful to be able to refer people to each other and to give some information in the referral. Also, during supervision it is helpful to be able to relate what happens on visits. We undertake to maintain confidentiality within the team.

We do not keep confidential anything indicating risk of harm to the person we visit (perhaps through self-harm) or to another. We have a duty to report the issue or to ensure that it is being dealt with in other ways.

In essence, supervision is:

• a way of empowering us to be more effective;
• a way of helping us develop our own internal supervisor as a support to working more effectively.