title: Introducing clinical supervision across Western Australian public mental health services.
abstract: Retention and recruitment of the mental health nursing workforce is a critical issue in Australia and more specifically in Western Australia (WA), partly due to the isolation of the state. It has been suggested that these workforce issues might be minimized through the introduction of clinical supervision within WA mental health services, where, historically, it has been misunderstood and viewed with caution by mental health nurses. This may have been partly due to a lack of understanding of clinical supervision, its models, and its many benefits, due to a paucity of information delivered into initial nurse education programs. The aim of this pilot project is to explore and evaluate the introduction of clinical supervision in WA public mental health services. A quantitative approach informed the study and included the use of an information gathering survey initially, which was followed with evaluation questionnaires. The findings show that education can increase the uptake of clinical supervision. Further, the findings illustrate the importance of linking clinicians from all professional groups via a clinical supervision web-based database.
authors.affiliation: Office of Mental Health, Department of Health, Perth, Western Australia, Australia. monica.taylor@health.wa.gov.au
authors.forename: Monica
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Taylor
authors.forename: Carole A
authors.initials: CA
authors.lastname: Harrison
mesh_terms: D001291:Attitude of Health Personnel; D002983:Clinical Competence; D016208:Databases, Factual; D004059:Diffusion of Innovation; D004509:Education, Nursing, Continuing / Q000458:organization & administration; D006801:Humans; D020407:Internet; D007588:Job Satisfaction; D008605:Mental Health Services / Q000458:organization & administration*; D016294:Models, Nursing; D009313:National Health Programs / Q000458:organization & administration*; D015399:Nursing Research; D009745:Nursing, Supervisory / Q000458:organization & administration*; D010560:Personnel Selection / Q000458:organization & administration; D010865:Pilot Projects; D016730:Program Development; D015397:Program Evaluation; D011568:Psychiatric Nursing / Q000193:education / Q000458:organization & administration*; D012944:Social Support; D014904:Western Australia