title: Enablers of and barriers to high quality clinical supervision among occupational therapists across Queensland in Australia: findings from a qualitative study.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Health professionals practising in countries with dispersed populations such as Australia rely on clinical supervision for professional support. While there are directives and guidelines in place to govern clinical supervision, little is known about how it is actually conducted and what makes it effective. The purpose of this study was to explore the enablers of and barriers to high quality clinical supervision among occupational therapists across Queensland in Australia.
  
  
  METHODS
  This qualitative study took place as part of a broader project. Individual, in-depth, semi-structured interviews were conducted with occupational therapy supervisees in Queensland. The interviews explored the enablers of and barriers to high quality clinical supervision in this group. They further explored some findings from the initial quantitative study.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Content analysis of the interview data resulted in eight themes. These themes were broadly around the importance of the supervisory relationship, the impact of clinical supervision and the enablers of and barriers to high quality clinical supervision.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  This study identified a number of factors that were perceived to be associated with high quality clinical supervision. Supervisor-supervisee matching and fit, supervisory relationship and availability of supervisor for support in between clinical supervision sessions appeared to be associated with perceptions of higher quality of clinical supervision received. Some face-to-face contact augmented with telesupervision was found to improve perceptions of the quality of clinical supervision received via telephone. Lastly, dual roles where clinical supervision and line management were provided by the same person were not considered desirable by supervisees. A number of enablers of and barriers to high quality clinical supervision were also identified.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  With clinical supervision gaining increasing prominence as part of organisational and professional governance, this study provides important lessons for successful and sustainable clinical supervision in practice contexts.
authors.affiliation: Cunningham Centre, Darling Downs Hospital and Health Service, Queensland Health, Toowoomba Hospital, Private Mail Bag 2, Pechey Street, Toowoomba, QLD, 4350, Australia. preeyamartin99@gmail.com.|School of Health Sciences, International Centre for Allied Health Evidence, University of South Australia, GPO Box 2471, City East Campus, Adelaide, South Australia, 5001, Australia. preeyamartin99@gmail.com.
authors.forename: Priya
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Martin
authors.affiliation: School of Health Sciences, International Centre for Allied Health Evidence, University of South Australia, GPO Box 2471, City East Campus, Adelaide, South Australia, 5001, Australia. saravana.kumar@unisa.edu.au.
authors.forename: Saravana
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Kumar
authors.affiliation: Joanna Briggs Institute, Wyatt House University of Adelaide, 115 Grenfell Street, Adelaide, South Australia, 5000, Australia. lucylynn.lizarondo@adelaide.edu.au.
authors.forename: Lucylynn
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Lizarondo
authors.affiliation: Cunningham Centre, Darling Downs Hospital and Health Service, Queensland Health, Toowoomba Hospital, Private Mail Bag 2, Pechey Street, Toowoomba, QLD, 4350, Australia. Ans.VanErp@health.qld.gov.au.
authors.forename: Ans
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: VanErp
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D001315:Australia; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007407:Interviews as Topic; D008297:Male; D009788:Occupational Therapy / Q000458:organization & administration*; D010559:Personnel Management / Q000592:standards*; D036301:Qualitative Research; D011793:Queensland