title: Group supervision as a means of developing professional competence within pre-hospital care.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Ambulance care has its foundations in experience-based knowledge relating to the care provider's flexibility and humility in the encounter with patients. The group supervision model used in this study is retrospective and experience orientated and it is designed to promote and develop the group's overall competence by facilitating the group process, as well as extending and improving levels of professional knowledge.
  
  
  OBJECTIVE
  The aim was to evaluate the experience of group supervision and to explore its impact on the participants' personal and professional development.
  
  
  METHODS
  This study uses an inductive qualitative approach where data collection was performed in the form of a focus group interview and analysed by a model of content analysis.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Group supervision appears to have had a positive impact on the participants' personal and professional development. The structure of the model appears to make it easier for the inexperienced co-worker more rapidly to develop expertise within his/her working area, which can be seen as an important tool in today's financially focused and time-pressurised health-care service. It is to be hoped that the results of this study will interest health managers and encourage them to consider group supervision as a tool for professional development not only within the area of the ambulance service.
authors.affiliation: Ambulance Service, NU-Hospital Organisation, Sweden. peter.brink@vgregion.se
authors.forename: Peter
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Brink
authors.forename: Siv
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Bäck-Pettersson
authors.forename: Ninni
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Sernert
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000552:Ambulances; D001291:Attitude of Health Personnel; D004632:Emergency Medical Services / Q000458:organization & administration*; D005260:Female; D017144:Focus Groups; D006126:Group Processes; D006801:Humans; D007857:Leadership; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D011361:Professional Competence; D036301:Qualitative Research; D012189:Retrospective Studies; D013548:Sweden